The Teacup Generation

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Chronocentrism refers to the belief that the current state of humanity is superior to past and future times. In this video interview Buckingham is suggesting that Gen Y – the Millennials – are less entrepreneurial-inclined, less pragmatic and more romantic about themselves. By inference, he is suggesting Gen X, Boomers and other generations have a greater entrepreneurial capacity and drive and this should concern us because “82% of all economic growth and GDP in this country is driven by entrepreneurial activity.” I don’t mean to diss Gen Y on the entrepreneurial front, but I worry this could be true.

In Obama’s address Tuesday evening he mentioned the word entrepreneur three times, all in the context of driving economic growth: “The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth.”  Our schools, our parenting, our communities need to be fostering the creative entrepreneurial sparks of emerging generations.

As anecdotal evidence that Marcus might be on to something, my wife teaches high school biology and environmental science and often bemoans not only the entitled, pampered attitude her students sometimes have, but more frightening that sometimes their parents defend and encourage these attitudes and behaviors and frame the discussion on how the school, the teacher, the curriculum, the textbook, is hampering their child’s development. What are we teaching our children if we bolster these notions of entitlement?  But then again maybe I’m just chronocentric about Gen X.

Stay true to your identity

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Yesterday we had the fortune of producing a live, interactive event with Pat Lencioni and Colleen Barrett, recently retired and President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines (although by her own admission she is having a hard time backing off from being involved in day to day operations.)  Colleen was a joy to work with – generous with her time and thoughtful to everyone at the studio.  She even stayed for an extra hour to participate in an interview we recorded for our leadership development video library.

All of the stories and lessons were valuable but one in particular sticks in my mind.  Years ago, a customer on SW Airlines wrote an angry letter to Herb Kelleher stating that she was appalled at the lack of severity and importance a steward showed while giving the standard safety talk before take-off.  Evidently the SW steward made some jokes about handing out towels and drinks in the unfortunate event of a water landing.  Ha ha.  Well, the customer wrote to Herb that she was shocked, dismayed, etc. etc.  Herb wrote back:
Dear Ms. [customer name],
We’ll miss you.
Sincerely,
Herb Kelleher

He wasn’t being petulant, he just meant to say that Southwest takes fun seriously and that they were unwilling to compromise their identity and values.  Fun is part of the Southwest identity.  A more likely response elsewhere might have been for the Legal department to advise HR to advise the Crew Chief to advise the airline stewards to knock-off the jokes before take-off.  Colleen’s point in the story is that if you acquiesce to every customer request you wind up closer and closer to mediocre, closer and closer to bland.  Bland isn’t outstanding, and it isn’t anywhere near a unique voice and identity.  It’s like Jeffrey Pfeffer’s point about benchmarking – if you spend your time benchmarking what everyone else is doing, you end up in the middle, which again isn’t anywhere near excellence.

The lesson doesn’t just apply to business of course.  While Pat Lencioni was getting make-up on for the show I admitted to him I hadn’t read his most recent book, The Three Big Questions For a Frantic Family (he now has four kids 10 and under!) and could he please give me the elevator version.  One of the three questions is: What makes your family unique?  Forget about keeping up with the Joneses and ask yourself and your family what is it about us that make our identity unique and that we treasure.

“Not enough” is all in your head

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tim_sanders_half.jpgJust the other day I had an encounter with a provider telling me there isn’t enough money and we can’t possibly accomplish a business task because we simply don’t have the resources. Better ask someone else in the organization to pony up the cash. We huddled and solved it another way – and it wasn’t that hard. How often have you worked tirelessly to deliver a promise to a key customer or stakeholder only to encounter the coalition of the unwilling in your own organization? The Chicken Littles may try to convince you there aren’t enough customers to go around, or the headcount just isn’t there to deliver, or the budget can’t possibly support an initiative.

Tim Sanders believes it’s all in your head. By focusing on what you don’t have it can become tremendously difficult to recognize everything you can do. Remember ‘necessity of the mother of invention’? If you invert your thinking to recognize an abundance of resources and talent are available, you can accomplish most anything reasonably proposed.

Ignite Your Team

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lynda_gratton31.jpgLynda Gratton describes a Hotspot as an environment full of energy, passion and creativity – and there are three defining elements which converge to create Hotspots. First, you need an environment of collaboration, not competition. This is a workplace where people engage collaboratively and openly.

Next you need to have people working across departments, organizations, divisions – basically you need people reaching into the talent circles of other domains and spaces to leverage external expertise.

These two are critical, but its not enough. To create a real Hotspot, you need purpose – a singularity to bring everyone together working in concert. All that remarkable innovation, velocity and energy needs direction and purpose. Once you have all three, you have a real Hotspot – a place where thinking is clear and people are alive with engagement and work becomes play. It can be exhilarating.

Crowdsource Your Business

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barry_libert1.jpgWhat in the world does it mean to “crowd-source” business functions? Apple creates collaborative online environments where users can contribute ideas and refine the iPhone, as well as Apple’s support processes. Procter and Gamble applied the same concept to their line of detergents and assembled an interactive forum in which their customers could help shape the quality of the product. And even cooler is Dell’s “Idea Storm” in which customers are provided the platform to share ideas and user experiences wth the company and peers to collectively improve Dell’s products. Essentially its a moderated Wiki and Dell does a fair job of not suppressing critique.

Barry Libert describes this concept and application in his book, We Are Smarter Than Me and of course his web site offers those same cool 2.0 technologies for collaboration and community-building. If you are interested in a primer on the subject, I suggest James Surowieki’s The Wisdom of Crowds. In it, he makes a compelling case for the power of the aggregate insight of crowds and communities over the expertise of individuals, even our most respected experts.

And if you take that bait, you’ll definitely enjoy an open dialogue between Surowieki and Malcolm Gladwell on Slate. Enjoy!

Jeffrey Pfeffer on Creating Performance Culture

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jpfeffer1.jpgTalent retention equals customer retention. It’s that simple. To ensure that your customers continue to support the products and services your organization offers, the first thing you need to do as a leader in your organization is to create an atmosphere where talented people can thrive and want to stay. Because when your talent stays, your customers stay. How do you do this? Step one is to create an environment of trust – a workplace where people are engaged, enthused, and collaborative because they understand they are safe – safe from downsize, rightsize games that try to anticipate the market climate. For example, in the wake of 9/11, of the eminent airlines only Southwest Airlines did not dismiss numerous employees out of market fears. As a result, talent there felt safer and more protected than their counterparts at other airlines who were let go.

Once people feel safe, the next step is to invest in them. SAS, SAP, and other marquee organizations know that investing in training and development, and rewarding performance, creates a strong sense of loyalty and engagment in top talent. And finally, remember that if you want to retain talented people, let them make key decisions to drive the success of the organization. As Jeffrey Pfeffer says, “If you intend to tell everyone what to do, hire idiots. They’re cheaper.”