domingo, 25 de noviembre de 2007

Stand by for boarding!!!

But no one boarded anything.

Astonished, the captain turned around from the figurehead to where he had climbed to lead the best conquering strategy ever conceived. By his side, the boatswain and the master gunner stretched their arms towards the infinite, anxious to reach the objective they had for so long yearned
.

-STAND BY FOR BOARDING!!- Repeated the Captain.


A couple men raised their heads, trying to figure out what was going on and what were the captain’s intentions, but that was all. The rest of the crew was still immersed in their everyday’s tasks, performing them so diligently and well as usually: some were mopping the deck, the cook was preparing the day’s meal, the apprentices ascended the masts to set the sails, but no one followed the captain and his officials in their heated conquering efforts.

Does this sound familiar to you?

How often have we, as leaders of a company met, being aware of the fact that, even though things are going well, we cannot live on the high seas forever? Someday, we will have to step on new lands, meet new ports, board new boats from which we may extract goods and wealth to refill our increasingly meager supplies and stores.

Thus, we carefully examine our competitors, their strategy and messages; the marketplace, its trends, shares and potential; the consumer, its path, its tastes, insights, purchase power…; the economy, inflation, growth, predictions… and finally…”Eureka! We have found it!”

As a hidden treasure in the midst of thousand islets, there it is, shinning, the way. That unique positioning, that new business line, that tiny millionaire niche, that service that textually responds to what consumers demand and that miraculously enough no one of our competitors has yet perceived, and that is handed to us on a plate to be owned and carried as our flag, proudly hoisted at the highest mast of our fleet.

And so, we decide to refresh our look, the occasion deserves it. We hire the best consultants and rejuvenate our logo, making it more attractive, more brilliant, more revealing than ever. And, finally, we go out in the street. No, wait! We´ve forgotten something: “The Staff: we must tell them”, and so we organize a two-hour meeting, we prepare buns and coffee -this juncture does not happen every day-and we bunch up the whole company to inform them on the good news.

Quite frequently, when in a non-English-speaking country the first barrier is the name and the claim. It is perfect, no doubt about it, but it has to be global, so it might be a bit difficult to pronounce in some countries. There it goes: “From now on, we are called Fernández & LRD WASX and our claim (which meaning we will explain right away to the non-English-speaking people, you´ll see how good it is) will be: “Acknowledging Leveraged Performance”. Something that for Spanish people sounds like what for you would be: “Rendimiento Mejorado Reconocido”(Any idea of what it means?).

We begin then to see the first faces of those who pretend to hide that they not only do not have the slightest idea of what it means, but that they have no intention to even try to understand it. They begin to check their watches, impatient to go back to their desks and finish what they promised their clients they would send them this same morning, and to get away from so much nonsense and waste of time. Next thing is the launch of a new corporate image & positioning that only exists in international meetings and in those ads we place in the industry’s press pretending that someone will accept as true.

(Sometimes I wonder what will happen if predictions are fulfilled and we all end up being bought by Chinese companies. What will our company’s name be? Fernández & Chan Yong Hou and our claim with be something like Fan Quie Huang Gua- which actually means “tomatoes and pickles” but no worries, since, like English in Spain and many other countries, 4/5 of the population will never understand what it means, anyway).

Quite recurrently, in small companies people work with the highest enthusiasm, everyone is aware of everything, and stick together before adversity. In these companies usually everyone rows in the same direction, regardless of the captain eventually shouting “This way!!”, while pulling the helm towards the right or the left. And why is this? Because them being smaller, information flows, ideas exchange and so does knowledge.

In big companies (and commonly also in medium-sized ones), people are converted into numbers. Numbers that are asked to add and subtract, divide and multiply, but rather not think, but obey what is decided on the top.

Then, the new ways are forced into their daily life. But since they have not been informed of the imperative needs to take this new paths of business, nor do they know why this is the one chosen, and what is worse, they have not participated in the process of finding one, it simply sounds too distant and banal to be applied.

The knowledge of each and every one of us (and here I deliberately avoid the word “opinion”) is important at any stage of the business, even more at the time of fixing a new direction. The most junior person in the company can contribute with a halo of light on a certain part of the business and become key.

Now, this is easy to say but, how can it be applied when we are talking about hundreds or thousands of people?

New technologies play an essential role here. Nowadays there are internal communication techniques able to perform this with the highest standards. It is important to make an effort to know and apply them.

Basically, there are three fundamental aspects to take into consideration: information, participation and compensation.

People in a company should be informed from the beginning of the reasons of its strategic movement, and, above all, in what does it affect them directly- any information must be relevant for the receiver. Next, they need to become part of the process by participating from phase I with their ideas, opinions, experience and why not, their vision of the business. You never know in what oyster you may find the largest pearl.

There are many ways of achieving this. From the simplest formulas, like organizing a poll for people to participate (whose results must be published and taken into consideration), to contests arranged by teams awarding the best idea, or teams structured in pyramids, from which conclusions are extracted bottom up until covering the whole company. One thing is vital: it must be made very clear that the information gathered will be taken into account, and that those who have come up with the most relevant contribution, will be compensated. Not only in a material and/or professional way, but also in the personal aspect, by making a public recognition of their effort and results.

People are people and expect to be treated as such. Furthermore, only when they perceive so, it is possible to extract the best out of them. A vessel’s crew needs to be informed of where they are going, when they are to board another ship or conquer new lands, how this is going to be made and what is their role and collaboration in the venture.

Conquerors had to have a very high motivation in order to cross oceans and risk of dying out of scurvy, hunger or run through by a spear. Normally, they were given part of the apprehended loot and lands in exchange for their undertaking. But they also guessed that, should they achieve something extraordinary, great stories were going to be told about them. Quite often this was their biggest motivation and the reason why they wrote long diaries relating their exploits in all detail. This is called personal achievement and it is frequently considered by people above financial or professional achievement.

Today, what do we give to our teams? What do we offer them in exchange for lifting their heads from their keyboards, going further from their everyday tasks and becoming an active part of our conquering desires? A slap in the back? It is incredible but, sometimes, not even that.

Only when our people will feel that they are a significant part of the strategy and may dream of being recognised for their exceptional efforts, will they jump on the land like propelled by a spring at the voice of “Stand by for boarding!”, ready to give their utmost for the success of an enterprise that, at last, is also theirs.

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