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Tom Peters Times -- July 2010
Basics #1 - It's Always the People
This edition of the TP Times has been written by Richard
King, Managing Director of Tom Peters Company,
based in London.
What's Going On?
This is supposed to be the year in which the recovery
would start to kick off in the world's troubled economies.
In reality, 2010 is proving to be "a bumpy road"
at best. The recession was so deep, the legacy of government
funded bank bailouts is so dire, and confidence is so
fragile that many of us are living in a fiscal no-mans
land.....neither recession nor growth.
If you are anything like me, you will be finding this
so called "new normality" massively frustrating!
There's a growing body of evidence that employees are
becoming increasingly frustrated with their employers.
Tolerance of current working conditions is reaching
breaking point. The May20th edition of the Economist
quoted a recent Hay Group study which found that a staggering
59% of participants were seriously considering leaving
or actively looking for new jobs. Worse still, 85% of
the passive remainder said they were only holding off
because of the scarcity of jobs! And a recent USA
today article reported that employees are beginning
to pluck up the courage to resign their posts, sometimes
without a job to go to.
What's
Getting in the Way?
I have decided to be self indulgent incompiling this
TP Times edition. This is a great time to remind ourselves
of Tom's old adage "To get going, you have to get
going!" The key question is "in which direction?"
We decided to look at what we have learned from the
200 or so managers and other professionals who have
completed Excellence
Audits during this difficult period. We want
to highlight some current business improvement opportunities
that are likely to resonate well with your work colleagues
and make it easier for you to mobilize people around
you to take action!!
The Excellence Audit invites people to consider a broad
range of excellence characteristics, and to identify
those which they think present the best improvement
opportunities in the upcoming period. Typically, there
is a high degree of agreement on the priorities for
action within each client survey. But there is just
as likely to be strong disagreement about some of the
excellence characteristics, and it's hard to forecast
at the outset which is which. The only safe prediction
is that managers and non-managers rarely look at things
through the same lens!
Get
Going?!
For those of you who share my strong bias for action,
I recommend you to focus on the slam dunkers, those
excellence characteristics where our Excellence Audit
participants have identified the most need for urgent
action. Here’s the top five. Check ‘em out
for yourself:
1. Our organization is known for its “lean and
mean” structure. We are obsessive about reducing
hierarchy, simplifying decision making, and shortening
lines of communication.
Headcount and budget cuts back have left survivors overworked
and feeling trapped within systems that no longer support
their work properly. Authority levels have often been
raised and/or centralized causing delays to obvious
necessary action and building people’s sense of
remoteness and frustration. Is your workplace lean and
mean enough? Have you asked people lately? Could you
compile a list of unnecessary niggles that are getting
in people’s way, and get folks working on removing
them. I bet you could!
2. Our leaders ensure that the work places here are
demonstrably great places to work and places where talented
people will want to work!
Assuming good people will put up with s*** conditions
forever will turn out to be a huge mistake. The camel’s
back is already making some nasty creaking noises! Excellence
Audits show that managers are already seriously underestimating
this. Are you sure there is nothing you can do immediately
to liven the workplace up a bit, to show some more interest
in people as people, to organize some shared (virtual)
fun activities, to uplift the atmosphere in the office,
to modify the layout, to bring in fresh flowers, to
organize “free fruit on Fridays”, and so
on ……? If you are sure, I think you should
check again!
3. We have clear, efficient, elegant, and distinctive
processes, procedures, and methodologies that support
our seamless work execution. They are our “signature”
and embody the character and personality of our business!
The essence of this is that excellent execution means
a lot to people, not just managers! This is very good
news that takes me back to so called employee involvement
experiments in my auto industry days! When did anyone
last sit people down for an hour and ask them how they
would improve the way that work happens around here?
Does the “Company Way” absolutely have to
dictate how, where and by whom every little thing gets
done? What about developing “Our Way?” Can
you and your colleagues think of ways to make the work
flow better, or make the work itself more interesting
for people? I bet you can!
4. We exploit the latest IT and Web-based systems to
deliver our products and services more efficiently,
to provide a more intimate and personalized service,
and to expand our offering through new online products,
features, and/or services for our clients/customers.
Here’s the “gotcha” in my five! Who
has got any spare IT budget these days? Well, social
networking and blogging is pretty well free and everyone
is at it in their spare time. Local competence levels
are likely to be quite high already. Check out Guy Kawasaki’s
Alltop site
for places to start. Maybe each colleague could be asked
to take on an important customer relationship and to
find web based ways to make it more intimate and personal!
Start by asking for volunteers or by going first yourself.
It might be the best learning experience of the year!
5. We reward and recognize our people based on the impact
of their work and the legacy they create, here and with
their clients/customers.
It is a common mistake to connect showing people appreciation
at work with pay and rations. It doesn’t have
to cost a penny for work colleagues to highlight examples
of individual excellence and to build a culture where
it is normal to hear plenty of thank you’s and
well dones. An early finish on a Friday, tickets to
the cinema, or dinner on the company over the weekend
won’t bust the budget and will linger longer in
the memory than you think. Are you brave enough to start
a personal “appreciate others” campaign
now? Maybe? Maybe not?
Over to You
I hope this edition inspires you to try outsome different
ideas that can spark a bit more creativity, energy,
and output fromyou and from those around you at work
who choose to follow your lead. We'd love to hear back
from you onhow you get on - you can leave us a comment
or email
us. Further Tom Peters Resources
Here are some places to find additional insights and
action ideas from Tom and Tom Peters Company relevant
to these same five target areas:
Tom Peters recent Excellence
Oath and Credo is a summary of the job of todays
leaders
Video clip: Leadership:Building
Success in which Tom Peters tells the story
of the leader of Re/MAX, who believes that making building
the success of his employees enriches his organization
The
Little BIG Things - sections from the book
that might enlighten!
Little P.1
Others P.77
Attitude P.103
Leadership P.143
Words P.155
NO P.195
Customers P.201
Design P.373
Grunge P.397
"Top Fifty"
"Have Yous"? Fabulous action checklist
that gives more thought starters around all five of
the above areas.
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