Admit it, you love the Bedazzler

Remember the Bedazzler?

The little stapler-like tool that lets one attach rhinestones, studs, and stars to clothing and other items? In the words of a classic TV infomercial pitch the tool - 'Takes things from dull to dazzling'.Flickr - Linda Libert

Just in case there is anyone reading that does not remember the Bedazzler, the basic idea was that you take an old or plain looking shirt or pair of jeans and via the careful and artistic attachment of (fake) jewels and other decorative attachments, the article of clothing would be transformed from a boring and typical piece into something unique and special.  The benefit (at least as described by excited TV pitchmen) was the rescue of clothes and other objects, and the ability to imbue some personality to plain articles.

That old pair of boring jeans, or that plain, solid color t-shirt immediately become one of a kind 'artworks', that can revive and revitalize a tired wardrobe and instantly transform the wearer into a kind of unique and distinctive personality.  Why be boring when you can be Bedazzling?

And you, or perhaps more accurately, many of your organizations love the idea of the Bedazzler. 

How so?

Think about that old legacy ERP system that you are using for HRIS, or the technology behind your intranet or employee portal, or the home-grown Microsoft Access and Word-based system a few smart folks from IT hacked together nine years ago to do some rudimentary talent and succession planning.

As time goes on, and with budgets constrained, and resources are tight the organization has likely been forced to make-do with what you have had, and most updates/enhancements/improvements to these systems (and perhaps to the underlying processes they support) are not at all that much different than slapping a few rhinestones on your old pair of jean shorts.  Sure, the first few stones and studs look good, they add a bit of flair, and in the case of your systems, a bit of functionality. And just like 'Bedazzling' a pair of jeans, adding incremental pieces of capability to your old systems is cheap, generally easy to do, and often provides some short term excitement and satisfaction.

But eventually the excitement and the ability to continue to meet the demands of the business with a cheap set of rhinestones runs out.  And then Bedazzling stops being fun. No matter how many fake jewels and colored studs you slap on those jeans, they're still the same old, tired jeans underneath.  

Eventually you'll fill up the jeans with glam, there will be no more room for additional enhancements, and you'll be left with a one of a kind custom monstrosity.

And that is not very dazzling.

Relief Pitcher or Management Consultant

You know what a pretty cool job is? Relief pitcher in the Major Leagues.  Sure you need a good arm, but after that, pretty much anything goes - see the former great Rich Garces.  

Another really good job is 'Management Consultant'. About the same physical fitness requirements as relief pitching, but definitely a great gig if you have the background and the smarts.  Now I know you can't chuck it 95 MPH  but maybe you could cut it as a consultant - try this little case study out and see if you can come up with the resolution.

The client is a small, but steadily growing precision manufacturer of specialty components for the computer storage industry. They are privately held, profitable, and have about 175 employees (a number that has grown from about 100 in the last 18 months), and have one central location for all manufacturing, operations, customer support, and administration. 

The CEO of the client company was having trouble understanding why after several years of success and incremental growth, recently the organization's results in some key metrics were slipping.  Shipments to customers were more frequently late, error rates in the production department were up, and internal complaints and rumblings about lack of communication and misunderstanding were on the increase.  The company had not made any significant changes in leadership, product and service mix, or basic corporate strategy. There had been some increased hiring to try and meet the growing customer demand, but internal discussions with line managers and HR seemed to indicate the vast majority of new hires were adjusting well and fitting in. In fact, the recent spell of success and growth had spurred the company to build an addition to the main facility, increasing production and shipping space by 50%, and improving employee cafe and break room areas.

The CEO was at a real loss to explain why, after their solid history of success, the assembly of a experienced leadership and management team, and careful and seemingly well executed growth strategy that results were slipping. He called in some help, in the form of an experienced and well-regarded management consultant to lend a fresh set of eyes and ears to the situation and to try and get to the bottom of the issues. Surely there was some kind of flaw in the operational strategy, perhaps the sales and marketing plans needed revision, or the supply chain management team needed to press suppliers for better performance or contract terms. Surely it had to be some complex, sophisticated, and 'need an Ivy-league MBA' brain kind of problem that needed to be discovered.

Interviews with line managers, production workers, finance, and others uncovered a set of mixed signals.  Sure there have always been odd issues of communication between production and shipping, or engineering and sales, but it did seem to most everyone that the instances of miscommunication and incorrect information were starting to increase.  For a small company, that prided themselves on a 'family' environment, where many of the employees had been with the firm since its inception, this was troubling, but no one could really identify the root causes.  Sure, the company was growing, but the new employees were not considered the problem, and the expanded and upgraded facilities should be making the entire production process more efficient and easier.

Careful analysis of the transcribed interviews compared to the statistics for shipments, defects, and complaints suggested that the problem started to present about 6 months ago, just about the time the plant expansion was completed.  But the expanded facility was seen as a great step forward, in particular everyone from shipping and engineering raved about the new space, with its modern design, improved lighting, and the new and well-stocked coffee and break room area that was much closer to their offices than the 'main' coffee and break room near the front of the facility. The consultant had much to ponder in preparation for the follow-up meeting with the CEO.

So did you get the answer?

Once the facility expanded, and the second coffee and break room was set up, it effectively reduced informal and spontaneous communication in the company by almost 40%. The increase in missed shipments, errors, and customer complaints could all be traced back to the installation of the second coffee room.

The consultant recommended they remove the second coffee room, observe informal communication return to its normal levels, and watch the metrics improve.  In the real company this case is based on, that is exactly what they did and that is exactly what happened.

Sure, every employee wants coffee and pop close to their office, but it just might make sense to make them walk for a bit to get their caffeine fix.  It definitely would have helped Rich Garces.

The Conference Room Paradox

It’s 10:00 AM on a Tuesday and you are standing huddled in the hallway with six or seven of your colleagues all awkwardly clutching notepads, files, coffee (and not the take out cups with protective plastic lids, regular office type mugs with funny sayings like ‘Number 1 Boss’ or ‘Wake me up when it’sflickr - faungg Friday’ on them), and maybe a laptop to take notes. Your standing weekly status/update/check-in/whatever meeting with the extended group is booked for 10, and the ‘big’ conference room, the only one relatively close to your cube farm that will comfortably fit everyone has been put on ‘reserve’ for this date and time for the next 179 weeks.

As usual there is another group meeting in the conference room before you, and once again their meeting has not broken up by their allotted ending time. So you do the right thing, you and your group give them a minute or two to wrap-up, no need to get all uppity about an odd few minutes.

It is now 10:03 and the conference room door is still closed, someone puts an ear up to the door and can hear some animated and excited (but muted from behind the closed door) conversations going on inside. Could be something innovative and exciting and important going on in there. Or it could be just another work team making casual small talk as their meeting winds up.  Hard to say, but you decide it doesn’t matter anyway, it is now 10:04 and your time is now being wasted, so you give the token quick ‘double-knock’ as a split-second warning and immediately open the door and state (politely but firmly), ‘Hi - I believe we have the room at 10:00’.

The folks inside do the right thing, quickly gather up their assortment of belongings (remarkably similar to all the stuff your team is carrying), and beat a hasty retreat to the door, pairs of participants sharing final bits of information, giving directions, making plans, etc.  You can’t help but hear most of what they are saying as your teams intermingle during the ‘file out/file in’ process.  It does sound like they were working on some interesting ideas on the new product line you have heard some rumors about.  Definitely way more interesting (and probably important) than another weekly meeting reviewing the same list of action items/tasks/statuses or whatever that you have to endure for the next 55 minutes.

But none of that really matters when availability of the ‘big’ conference room is at stake.  It is kind of a mark of status and importance to have a standing claim to a few hours a week of time using that prized resource.  Good thing when your assistant booked the room for you (for the next 179 weeks), the scheduling program didn’t ask you for a justification or an explanation of exactly how you manage to harness and direct insight, creativity, and innovation into exact one-hour increments on the same day every week.

You know you have all been there before. The big conference room paradox. Organizations drag everyone into a central location called ‘the office’, but then parcel out space in small increments of cubes and private offices, and there is hardly any space to actually interact and communicate and collaborate. The ‘big’ conference room becomes highly prized as a gathering place, and slots are tightly distributed by the hour, and snatched up without much thought to importance or value to the enterprise.

Dang, I just heard a knock, I can’t finish this post with an epic conclusion since my hour is up, I guess I’ll have to hold that thought until next Tuesday at 10:00, (or 10:04).

Re-thinking Talent

Tonight on the HR Happy Hour show the topic is 'Re-thinking Talent'. 

Set for Thursday July 8, 2010 - 8PM EDT - Call in 646-378-1086

It seems like the long economic malaise in the US and many other countries has altered almost everything that was previously known (or at least assumed) about the nature of work, the social contract between employers and employees, and the ways that individuals and organizations have to operate in order to succeed (or even survive).

In response to these changing and perhaps forever changed conditions, a slew of books, blogs, and articles have been written advising the individual in how to adapt to this new world.  Go out there and work harder/smarter/better etc.  Go do the work you love since the work you have to do may not be there tomorrow.

The recession in particular is forcing a new generation of workers to think differently about work and nature of their future relationship with an employer, or more likely the many employers they are going to have in their working careers. Workers and candidates have been forced to adapt, but what about organizations?

Are the organizations that need to have access to and support from ever more capable collections of talented staff doing enough to adapt themselves to this new environment? What approaches and strategies for talent acquisition make the most sense in a world where compensation, benefits, and long-term security can no longer be promised? Does traditional internal career pathing even make an impact on the modern employee that fully expects a short tenure at an organization?

Lots of questions, and hopefully some answers tonight on the show. Joining us to talk about these issues will be Susan Burns from Talent Synchronicity and Jennifer McClure from Unbridled Talent.

If nothing else, we will keep you entertained up until the big LeBron James announcement.

Trains and Perception

How much is the perception of the experience impacted by what the experience is called?

There have been a few recent rants posts about some dreadful experiences with air travel recently. China Gorman made her blogging debut on the HR Capitalist with a tale of woe on a recent flight, and Mike VanDervort at the Human RaceHorses blog documented a unforgettably poor experience trying to make his way home from the SHRM conference.

It is not news that air travel can really suck, and that customers are often subject to rude, inconsiderate, and even downright offensive treatment at times by airline employees, policies, and even fellow customers. To be fair, to me it still is an incredible experience to be able to strap inside a metal tube, blast off 35,000 feet into the sky, travel thousands of miles in a few hours, and arrive safely at your destination. I am not going to try and defend the industry, but it does seem like perhaps we are all a bit spoiled.  Sure United broke that guy’s guitar and he made certain that we all knew about it. In fact, United breaking his guitar was probably the luckiest break that band ever had.

But what about the millions of other pieces of checked crap that is moved successfully each day? No one blogs or makes catchy videos called ‘United transported by ridiculously heavy bag of golf clubs safely to Myrtle Beach’.

Maybe the airlines need to take a step to improving their image (and perhaps the customer service they deliver), by taking a page from Amtrak.  Book passage on an Amtrak train and you are likely to be traveling on the ‘Coastal Starlight’, the ‘Silver Meteor’, or the ‘Happyland Express’.

Take a redeye flight from Los Angeles to New York and you are liable to be on #AA27’, which quickly can morph in to ‘Steerage to Oblivion’, ‘Six Hours in a Middle Seat in Coach’, culminating in a ‘Sweaty Wait on the Tarmac.’

Perhaps it is just me, but somehow I get the feeling that employees, customers, and everyone else associated with making sure the ‘Coastal Starlight’ makes it successfully, safely, and positively from Seattle to LA are just a bit more motivated and excited that the community that surrounds ‘UA6033’, one flight that travels that same route.  

And if I am right, the same logic could be applied inside the organization, to programs that you have to maintain and administer, but don’t necessarily engender excitement and enthusiasm from the HR staff tasked to deliver, and the employees and managers forced to participate. Create a title that resonates and connects.

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Instead of marching off managers to ‘Mandatory Regulatory Compliance Update Training’, send them to ‘Who’s Next on the Perp Walk - Don’t Let it Be You’.  

I think people might get pretty fired up for that class.