DESTINATION WORK! Getting people excited about coming to work and working hard

DESTINATION WORK! Getting people excited about coming to work and working hard by Harry Paul and Ross Reck (2010), Westland Limited, India, first published in the US by Wiliam Morrow: HarperCollins in 2009, p 117

Managing work force in the organizations has become much greater challenge in the times of increasing employee expectation, high stress levels, demanding tasks, and peer pressure and cut-throat competition.  In these times Harry Paul (co-author of Fish) and Ross Reck introduce this book entitled Destination Work: getting people excited about coming to work and working hard.  This book suggests ways to turnaround the organisation through motivating the workforce by displaying concern and affecting their behaviour intrinsically so that they start enjoying work.

The book starts with an example of the performance of New York Giants in the National Football League losing seven out of nine matches played in 2007.  The job of the coach gets questioned and thats when he changes his approach to deal with the players from ‘motivating with fear’ to ‘motivating with trust’.  This reverse approach helps reap good fruits for the team and turnsaround its performance in 2008.  The communication amongst the team members and the coach improves, the team members come to understand how much their coach really cares for them.

This book prescribes the ways to turnaround the performance levels of employees through creating positive environment at the work-place so that employees are driven (intrinsically) to enjoy work.  It is about turning around unhappy workers into happy workers.  The book is all about caring for employees and to communicate this positively to them how much the organizations and bosses really care for their employees.  Surprisingly we are still thinking about it after around a century when Elton Mayo with Roethlisberger had concluded in illumination study (Howthrone Experiment), that work is a group activity and taking care of employees is one of the most important motivation for them to work harder.  

The book divided in 10 core chapters offers nuggets at the end of every chapter which succinctly ends each chapter.  Some of the nuggets are here:

• Most fully understand that the harder employees work, the better those numbers are going to be.
• What many don't get is that the better they treat their employees, the harder they will work. (p 9)
• Managing employees strictly by numbers sends all these wrong messages: (p16)
• performance numbers and the bottom line are more important than employees
• managers don't trust their employees
• employees are expendable
• managers don't care about the well-being of their employees
• Happy employees - smile more, have more fun, work harder, work better with fellow employees, are more loyal and love their boss and hence the bottom line is Happy Employees are Productive Employees (p 26).
• Managing with trust frees employees up to turn their work into fun. As a result - the most mundane and repetitive tasks become enjoyable, employees look forward to coming to work every day - especially on Monday, and employees apply more of their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs (p 50).
• How can you tell if you are using fear as a motivator? The next time you walk through your department, ask yourself the following questions - do my employees: look like they are glad to see me, have smiles on their faces most of the time, eagerly make eye contact with me and do I feel my employees have my best interests at heart?  If the answer to each of these questions is 'no', you are using fear as a motivator.  This means your department is underachieving which is costing you on your performance. (p 65)
• Fear can not be considered as a motivator rather it has to be Trust which needs to be built between the boss and subordinate through following four Be's - Be real, Be appreciative, Be interested and Be nice (p 38). 
• Your employees want to talk to you and let you know what is going on and spending time with employees becomes a source of happiness (p 74)
• Front line employees apply even more of their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs (p 90)
• Employees look forward to coming to work and working hard, lower and middle managers no long have to worry about their performance reviews, and the entire workplace is characterized by contagious excitement which translates into positive experiences for customers and shareholders. (p 106).

The book is written with a fictional story of individuals (Max, Nancy, Tom, Jack) and organizations.  The journey of individuals through the trivial conditions prevalent in the conservative organisational system to transform the organization towards achieving its targets is very well reflected in the book.  The focus on numbers is questioned and focus on people, relationship and concern for them is explained through very many examples.  The authors also provide capsules from other motivational authors at different places in the book.  

Destination work is all about creating an environment at the workplace where the employees are at ease and keep their esteem very high through their team effort.  It is a book which, at its core, focuses on four Be's - Be real, Be appreciative, Be Interested, and Be Nice.  Sure this small book has big message.  After all we all live to work. Is it the other way?

(finished reading this book on 13.11.11... scribbled notes.... compiled them today...15.3.12)

The Tao of Loyalty

THE TAO OF LOYALTY - WINNING WITH EMPLOYEES by Ajit Rao (2006), Response Books, SAGE, New Delhi, India, Pages 257

Few years back when Philip Kotler visited India, he was asked by a business reporter, if he has to add 5th P into 4Ps of Marketing (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) what that P would be.  Kotler's reply was very apt, PEOPLE.  People in different roles have become very important for all types of organizations and it has somehow given a direction to them to redesign their HR and Marketing policies, more so for their internal marketing.  In these changing times a book got published in 2006, entitled 'The Tao of Loyalty - Winning with Employees' authored by Ajit Rao who through his research portrayed the importance of Loyalty in organizations and its different dimensions.

Steven F Walker, an accomplished scholar and CEO of Walker Information, while putting his foreword to the book applauds the work done by Ajit and mentions that -Many corporations today do not ponder enough on the value that employees bring to their business.  This book helps to bring focus on the very important role that employees have in maintaining and growing customer loyalty that will yield improved financial success.  

The book has 12 chapters (The 5^th P of Marketing, Emotional Loyalty, Loyalty Segmentation, Eleven Factors that Matter, The Managerial Grid: Task and People, The Task Factors, The People Factors, Communication, The Three Levers, The Role of Leadership, The Role of HR, and The Role of the Boss) in all and is designed in such a way that as one turns the pages, one keeps discovering new concerns of loyalty and the ways to deal them.  The book is based on the results of a questionnaire survey conducted on the basis of statements designed from the input by Walker Information Inc. and CSSM (Customer Satisfaction Management and Measurement) under IMRB International, who have been partners of Walker Information in India.   

The book starts with the first chapter on the 5^th P, i.e., People.  It discusses the important role of people in the organizations justifying that the degree of employees’ loyalty determines the degree of service quality.  As he quotes Howard Shultz (Chairman and CEO of Starbucks and one of the authors of bestseller Pour Your Heart Into It) who use to think marketing as the most critical function and later realized that it was the people who were key to delivering great experiences in a sustained manner. Ajit explains the concept of Tao which is based on the Chinese philosophy where life is considered to be full of contradictions and successful individuals are those who are able to understand it and manage it better than others.

He mentions in the first chapter (p 29) ‘The management of employees in any organization can apply this concept of contradictions to building a team of highly loyal employees.  In this book the Tao question is to find out the way in which an organization manages its employees which results in having a productive group of people as well as this productivity is sustained for future.  This is just one Tao and the book keeps unfolding different contradictions throughout along with the ways to deal with them, though the author keeps repeating at number of places that this is not a book on Hows but on Whys. The book identifies measures and suggests the dimensions of employees’ loyalty and its impact on their willingness to leave or stay with one organization. 

Two dimensions of Loyalty, viz., Emotional and Behavioral are discussed through examples and the author, through the data, successfully explains the impact of emotional loyalty on the behavior of employees.  Ultimately it is the ‘feel-good’ employee who shows better loyalty to the organization as compared to a person who thinks that his/her potential is being exploited by the organization.  It is more important an issue while we look at attrition rate of employees and their willingness to leave an organization for better salary package.  The contribution of highly loyal employees is reflected through a very good example of Reliance when in 1989, their Patalganga complex was fully flooded and the consultants said that it would take atleast 100 days to clear up the mess, Reliance employees cleared the whole plant in just 3 weeks time.  Such reflection of loyalty towards one’s organization is what makes an organization win its employees and sustain growth. 

Every organization is unique and has its own “threshold level” of loyalty.  When an organization’s loyalty level drops below this threshold level, the behavioral scores of the organization drastically change. This statement mentioned at p 51 underlines the flexibility the organizations have as well as the result of loyalty on the behavior of the employees which finally in turn get reflected in the organizational performance.  Intention to continue with the same organization also is measured to find out the loyalty levels.  Ajit feels that emotional loyalty is more powerful way to look at employees than employee engagement. 

The employees are classified in four categories (chapter 3) as The Truly Loyals (46%), The Accessibles (5%), The Trappeds (19%) and The High Risk Employees (29%). This chapter explains the basic concept of emotional and behavioral loyalty through these four types of employees and how it can be measured and how an organization can identify ideal loyalty scores.  The fourth chapter clearly outlines and suggests eleven key factors to be followed by the organizations in order to increase the size of Truly Loyal employees. These factors are Job Satisfaction, Role Outcomes, Resources, Sense of Accomplishment, Buy-into-Vision/Mission, Fairness, Care, Trust, Appreciation, Involvement, and Quality of Communication.  These are validated through many studies taken up by Walker Information Inc in last two decades and are also been considered while conducting Great Places to Work surveys.  Ajit suggests that the scores on these 11 factors can be averaged to provide one single score, which can be called the Tao Score (p 81).

As students of management we have grown with the Managerial Grid as propounded by Blake and Mouton in 1957.  Though this grid has been under scrutiny, yet its importance and relevance is not questionable at all.  This grid has been under change after its formal publication and at present also stays as Leadership Grid.  Ajit discusses this grid and relates it to the loyalty by bracketing the 10 factors into Task bucket (Job Satisfaction, Role Clarity, Buy-into-Vision/Mission/Values, Resources and Accomplishment) and People bucket (Fairness, Care and Concern, Trust, Being Valued and Appreciation) and keeping Communication as a common factor as foundation.  Chapter 5 discusses these issues in details through related figures and diagrams which present the argument very convincingly.  These factors are not to be taken independently rather they should be taken as complementary to each other as they depend on each other and have their influence on other as well. 

The Task factors are separately discussed in chapter 6 where the examples from Starbucks and the Built to Last corporations are put in such a way that the reader can get to the grip of these 5 task factors, their inter-relationship and inter-dependence and their role in building great organizations.  As explained an employee’s engagement is gauged through the scores on these factors, a high score shall show high engagement thereby leading it to having better loyalty levels as well.  Similarly chapter 7 discusses People factors in deep through various examples.  It makes a good case for defending the interests of employees through the policies and action of the leaders and organizations as to being fair to its employees, showing care, concern and trust for them, acknowledging their contribution and providing enough space for their participation in the interest of the organization.  The individuals having high scores on people factors are those who can create highly nurturing environment. 

While one looks at the Managerial Grid, one tends to follow such path which leads him/her to follow team management by balancing people and task related issues.  Here too such balance is required though task factors seem more objective, tangible and visible as compared to people factors which look more subjective, intangible and invisible.  Whatever if the organizations focus on these two type of factors with proper balancing, they would surely be successful in increasing the size of truly loyal employees which in turn shall be translated into their better contribution for organizational growth. 

Communication is put as a foundation for both types of factors, viz., Task and People, and it is discussed briefly in chapter 8.  Undoubtedly it is one of the most important activities of the management for smooth coordination of its functions across different functional areas.  At times it is the communication which is blamed for big disastrous decisions in the organization, so whether the organization concentrates on Task or People, it has to first make sure that it is able to properly communicate all its policies, programs and decisions. 

Chapter 9 briefly identifies three levers that are responsible for systematically concentrating on eleven factors that are outlined for leading a team of truly loyal employees.  These three levers are: the leadership, the HR and the boss.  This chapter of 3 small stanzas just provides the justification for choosing these three levers and the nature of the relationship that is required to be built for focusing on all the factors.  In the next three chapters, their role is illustrated separately and clearly.  These three chapters suggest Leadership Scorecard, HR Scorecard and Boss/Supervisor Scorecard.

While the Leadership Scorecard is based on the issues related to mission, vision, values, customer focus, organizational priorities, faith, innovation, communication etc., the HR Scorecard deals with finding talented people, proper performance evaluation systems, job suitability and comparability, training opportunities for improving knowledge, skills and abilities, career growth, welfare benefits, policy alignment, effective reward systems, and fairness.  The Boss/Supervisor Scorecard is developed on the basis of 5 Task factors, 5 People factors and Communication as a common factor. The scores are derived on the basis of team, unit/department, company average and best team score in the company which helps the decision makers to accordingly prioritize.  

The author puts a summary after all the chapters where he strongly writes that Employee loyalty must form an important part of marketing strategy as the final delivery is through people. …One important point we’d like to make is that there are perhaps some more factors (apart from 11 factors that are explained in the book) that may impact loyalty of which we are not aware.  This is simply the start of a journey to explore how the loyalty levels can be measured and managed. …It is only when all the three roles (leadership, HR and boss) play their parts well, will the Truly Loyal levels be sustainable.  There are four appendixes which are attached towards the end of the book explaining the methodology (Appendix A and D), a note on the reward penalty analysis (Appendix B), and the points to ponder for all the factors (Appendix C).  A small bibliography at the end leaves the reader with a better reading list on the related issues.

The book is written in a very simple language and the illustrations given in different chapters make the book lovable, convincing and clear.  This is a small book with great work, mission and message (Loyalty) which not only is relevant for business organizations but for all types of organizations which are surrounded by people.  Though the book was written around four years back, I strongly feel its relevance which guides the researcher to take up such ventures in future to further explore the spectrum of Employee Loyalty and may be to suggest measures to deal with the yin and yang (contradictions) within and beyond organizations.  I strongly recommend this book to all management scholars and especially to those who deal in HR area.

[published in IJM, Vol 3 (1), Jan 2011, p 101-105]

True Leaders by Price & Ritcheske

TRUE LEADERS - How Exceptional CEOs and Presidents Make a Difference by Building Poeple and Profits by Bette Price & George Ritcheske (2006) Corpus Collosum Learning Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, India. First Indian Edition: 2006 p 223

Can Leaders be made or they are only born? The debate over this issue has been finding place in the management literature in the last century. The genetic science has reasons to believe that it lies in ones genes how he/she is going to reflect on the work behaviour. However, it is also argued number of times that through education, training and pruning one could transform himself/herself into a successful and effective leader. The difference between effective and successful leaders, between effective and ineffective leader is also an issue which is getting importance in the literature as well as in practice.

This book on True Leaders is an eye opener for those who want to learn the secrets of successful and effective leaders. It addresses the issue of ‘born’ or ‘made’ debate in a very convincing manner. As the preface reads -

‘True Leaders is a blueprint for success in an era when a rapidly changing marketplace and an ever changing workforce require integrating human value with economic value to differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leader.

The book is an outcome of the interviews with 27 most successful business leaders in the US, coming from diverse group of industries, some held publicly and some privately, some led by men, some by women and some by minorities. These leaders operate with a background of core values which could be translated into good financial performance. These leaders demonstrate great deal of inherent love and caring for their people, which makes them True Leaders. The book includes the leaders like Garrett Boone, Chairman and Cofounder, The Container Store, Terri Bowersock, Founder, Terri’s Consign and Design Furnishings, John Bruck, Chairman and President, BHE Environmental, Inc, James Copeland, Jr, CEO, Deloitte & Touche, Debbie Gaby & Len Gaby, President & CEO, Sleep America, Ann Hambly, MD, Prudential Asset Resources, Frank Hennessey, CEO, MascoTech, Vicki Henry, CEO, Feedback Plus, Inc, Irv Hockaday, President and CEO, Hallmark Cards, Linda Huett, President and CEO, Weight Watchers International, Inc, Jack Kahl, Founder, Manco, Inc, Jack Lowe, CEO, TD Industries, Bill Matthews, Managing Partner, Plante & Moran, LLP, Mike McCarthy, Chairman, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc, Gary McDaniel, CEO, Chateau Communities, Inc, Gary Nelon, Chairman and CEO, First Texas Bancorp, Inc, James B Nicholson, President and CEO, PVS Chemicals, Inc, David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc, Dr Alvin Rohrs, CEO, SIFE, Len Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Radio Shack Corporation, Bruce Simpson, CEO, AppGenesys, Inc, Lou Smith, President and CEO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kip Tindell, President and CEO and Cofounder, The Container Store, David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, US General Accounting Office, Tim Webster, President and CEO, American Italian Pasta Co, and Dan Woodward, Chairman and CEO, Enherent Corp.

The book contains 12 chapters and 5 Appendixes. The chapters start with Defining true leaders (chapter 1), considering passion as a prerequisite (chapter 2), See what is not yet visible (chapter 3), care enough to connect and convey (chapter 4), treat learning like dirty dishes (chapter 5), do what's right and tell the truth (chapter 6), trust is a must (chapter 7), recognize and build people (chapter 8), trust your intuition (chapter 9), risk to respond and grow (chapter 10), respect the importance of balance (chapter 11), and, so what? predictions for the future (chapter 12). The leaders who find their views expressed and their values conveyed to their people are effective leaders. After every chapter of the book there are certain questions to be explored and discovered which would certainly help the reader for practical purposes.

The book refers to Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) and draws a lot from their experience. SIFE clarifies its mission as: To provide college students the best opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing, and teaching the principles of free enterprise. It is a nonprofit collegiate organization in US. Appendix A provides a detailed perspective on the activities of which SIFE carries and their experiences. The book has a leadership evaluation tool as given by Dan Woodward in Appendix B. Appendix C illustrates ‘One-with-One Discussion Card’ used by TD Industries. This card facilitates the discussion between employees and supervisors. This practice is unique in its nature. A concise objective view of the whole book is reflected in Appendix D which consolidates the Attitudes and Values of all the 27 leaders included in the book. This appendix shows ‘the average true leaders attitudes and values graph’. Appendix E provides summarized information with the web addresses of all the companies included in this present work. For readers convenience an index (p 213-219) is provided towards the end of the book and the information about the authors is provided just to wind up the book.

The narratives used in the book make it interesting for the readers and the language used is very simple which is easy to follow and we can relate it with our immediate environment. ‘True leaders genuinely care about people. They feel a responsibility to create a work environment in which people are respected and recognized, and they allocate funds to ensure that their people are adequately trained.’(p 129) ‘It’s very easy to get into a trap of focusing on mistakes instead of looking for positive opportunities. If leaders can shift the emphasis to looking for the things people are doing that are right and for ways to reward doing the right thing by creating opportunities, they serve the organization better and go a long way toward building people.’(p 143) ‘Being committed, accountable, and responsible doesn’t necessarily translate to giving up the joys of personal life. Lou Smith says he loves being at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, but my life doesn’t end if I’m not here. I, and we as leaders, should not be consumed by the enterprise. We call it balancing life.’(p 169) And to top all this the authors strong belief is "You won't find passion as part of the curriculum at leading business schools, nor will it be listed as an elective. Yet in the real world of true leaders, passion plays an integral role." These are some important pieces I personally like, there are many such pieces which would add lot of value to the reader after going through this book.

This is a book which is useful for students, practitioners, teachers and a common man. There are many examples and events which occur in our own surroundings very often, this would certainly help the reader to relate and find out the ways in which he/she can deal with the issue.

I recommend this book, written in a very simple manner, easy to follow language, and rich in its academic content, to the students of management and teachers.

[published in Business Analyst. Vol 1, No 2 (New Series) Oct 06-March 07, New Delhi, India. Pp 141-144]