| |  | | | 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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