AT OUR BEST: PERFORMING 101

There are certain times of the year that we’re delighted to be consultant-entrepreneurs.

The holidays, for one.  No, not because we miss the seasonal party [though we do get together with friends and clients].  Nor for the year-end bonuses and celebrations.

The reason we’re glad to be an LLC?  The much-loved, much-discussed (and yes, much-detested) performance review.

Today, companies claim they’ve solved the issues:  Employees demotivated, work disrupted, and difficult conversations either not implemented or executed poorly.  An all-too-infrequent focus on personal results and chemistry.  Little ongoing feedback.  Work relationships that, simply, don’t work.  And so on.

The solutions range from new software-in-the-cloud packages to performance review re-positioning.  For the former, software provider salesforce.com (among others) touts its social networking foundation, its combination of virtual and real rewards, and its ongoing tied-to-project employee goal-setting.  In re-positioning efforts, businesses of all shapes and sizes, in a variety of industries, completely do away with formal reviews (about 1 percent of those reporting, says the Corporate Executive Board) and/or institute year-round processes, i.e., not limited to specific months in the year.

Great ideas, one and all.  Yet what these and other solutions fail to consider is the relationship between manager and staff.  If there’s a lack of trust for the manager, for one, we know of few employees who will risk a job to tell the diplomatic truth.  Or if there are few chances for open communication, again, only a few will raise their hands and request time to talk.  Even anonymous peer-to-peer evaluations and 360° feedback can falter when candor is not appreciated. 

Driving high performance is, at its core, a contract between manager and employee; that’s the level at which work is accomplished.  It’s a form of communication, beginning way before onboarding, at the time of interviewing and, then, hiring.  When that trust and fundamental honesty are cemented, performance reviews become a matter of record, documents that exist to confirm that work is either being done well, not so well, not at all.  It’s the conversations that make the difference.

We know this is radical.  At the same time, communicators (and their allies, from HR to design) can have a major impact on driving performance, all in coaching for open dialogue.  How are we doing?

TECHNOLOGY IS MY FRIEND ... ?

We sit.  We think.  We read email.  We type notes and replies (but rarely, if ever, reply to all). We delete. 

Soon, scientist-inventors tell us, the 100 million Americans who regularly eye screens and finger keyboards may not only dispense with the never-ending in-box struggle but also with the hardware that allows us to respond. That is, the mouse.

In a sense, our touch-smart phones already do that.  As does Kinect software from our buddies in Washington State as it recognizes our movements.  In a few years (or months, given the light speed of tech innovation), we’ll completely delete both the stand-alone and built-in PC/Mac mice.  Instead, gestures will communicate our meanings and our responses over the screens.

The question is:  How will arm and leg and head movements convey the sometimes subtle notions we’re trying to demonstrate?  Will sarcasm, for instance, be shown as a facial tic?  The oh-so-diplomatic replies, delivered with a straight no-nonsense face and little movement?  Broad humor, for sure, might be a grimace and slap on the knees; a heartfelt sentiment could be captured with a simple hand over heart.  Quite frankly, we don’t welcome those changes

On the other hand, AOL, the originator of “you’ve got mail,” has developed an amazingly simple (and visual) email system that we’re ready to adopt … like now.  Folders are shown pictorially as rows of picture tiles, on the right hand side; recipients can customize them as needed.  The left is reserved for a stream of incoming mail, automatically sorted into those tiles (or stacks); the middle, filled with icons for all the operations of email (respond, reply, new email et al.). Alto from AOL is now in beta; for those of us who live in visual worlds, whether designers or marketers or communicators, it’s a true gift.

Have we answered the implied question in our headline?  To us, it’s “sometimes.”

THERE IS NO "I"

If anyone’s as hooked as we are on ABC’s night-time soap opera Revenge, you would have noticed an early November ten-minute ad storyline sponsored by Neiman Marcus and Target.

An unlikely duo?  Ever since the announcement in summer 2012, the trades have heralded this as a master-minded “collabapalooza.”  In the first week of the Holiday24 collection, Neiman’s reported some product sell-outs, while Target also basked in the revenue glows.  Even though the high-low collection didn’t garner major door-crashing success pre- and post-event observers talked about mutual benefits:  The luxury retailer gets access to younger customers and a cool and hip moniker, while Tarzhay (pardon our phonetics) once again was paired with upscale stuff.  The partnership, in sum, worked.

Collaboration, in our worlds, doesn’t always experience this kind of positive notoriety.  All too often, we’re faced with a different sort of ‘palooza:  A self-directed rather than a group focus.    Attitudes stuck in the “it’s my function, my business unit” mode.  An unwillingness to share knowledge.  Even an avoidance of conflict.  Instead of working for the common good, goals tend to be personal, with cynicism and suspicion coloring the results. 

Patrick Lencioni pointed to these frequently fatal flaws in his 2002 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  Ten years later, what has changed? 

From our perspective, the change has been driven by the ever-increasing recognition that communications, when paired with human resources, has the power to modify behaviors and mindsets.  In a sense, what the Dallas-Minneapolis retail collection is proving with its unique blend of integrated product and marketing communications.

Making teams work is more than technology, a community intranet, or the latest in software.   Obviously, collaboration starts at the top when leaders share vision and purpose.  But to get at its roots, and embed the practice in employee thinking and actions, the HR-communications combo must listen and voice.  Educate and reinforce.  Reward and recognize.  Only then will we begin to realize what Michael Jordan truly meant.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE 2012 ELECTION

Numbers fascinate us.

Political pollsters live (and die, metaphorically) by them.  They’re the center of accountants’ and actuaries’ work.  PR professionals create news through numbers.  And Web sites and social media attempt to  measure impressions and results in some form of credible numerics.

At the same time, numbers can be manipulated.  Just because only a teeny percentage of Millennials isn’t bored by advertising – or so trumpets an Edelman survey of 4,000 of these cohorts  – doesn’t mean that the vast majority of them don’t fast-forward their Tivos during ad segments.   Any reported quantity of Facebook likes, even in the high double digits, only reveals that many folks are clicking in to participate in a promotion, win a prize, or share information for points.

In short, we’re jaded number crunchers.  The mother/daddy of all statistical generators, the election researchers, showed their true selves this fall, with the U.S. Presidential election.  Instead of guiding and advising candidates, pollsters allowed for the churns and flip-flops of their clients.  [No, it wasn’t just Mitt Romney, trust us.]  A majority of West Coast voters favor gay marriage?  Then, our to-be representatives replied “aye” with vigor.  Healthcare the number-one issue on Easterners’ minds?  You bet, at least some form of Obamacare was sanctioned by all.

Polls, to us, are real opportunities to listen, to guide our behaviors, to refine our actions.  Sure, they’re grist for our external relations colleagues to drive awareness.  We’ve done the same in previous lives.  Consider this:  The best of researchers use carefully planned statistics as an architecture, the foundation for causes and reasons and emotions.  They pore over every word, every question, then copy-test to ensure that the clarity of the question will produce answers of meaning.    When responses appear, they’re sliced and diced and cross-scrutinized to ensure accuracy of reporting, then mapped to indicate future trends and issues (and needed metrics).

That kind of care with numbers is our true North Star, whether driving change or marketing or brand campaigns.   Say it’s so, Mark Twain.

THE "R" THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED

Yesterday was 1/1/2013.

 So with this new year, we vow never, ever again to use the “R-esolution” word. To us, that means a promise to fix this, upgrade that, add on something else  – or “renovating,” the usual gist of our “gotta do this.”

We could be talking personal renovating horrors:  Contractors who appear – and vanish at the speed of sound.  Projects that don’t want to be finished (like the tile floors our builder swore weren’t crooked or mislaid).  Pristinely perfect bathrooms with, in the day’s light, faucets that creak and showerheads that gurgle. 

Yet the same kind of fear, uncertainty, and doubt surround us when starting to look at brands and the brand experiences, ours and the companies that touch us.  We read with extreme interest, for one, about the makeover of Holiday Inns’ hotel bars, morphing into social hubs for extroverted guests (and reducing restaurant labor costs since bar staff will serve customers).  This is more than a refresh or facelift.  It’s a significant renovation, even in pilot, that signals a major update and brand experience change to not only business travelers, but also to the hotel’s franchisees, their staff, and the various vendors who work with the brand. 

Which is why it’s so refreshing (!) to read/hear about CMOs and other executives who are not afraid to call a brand renovation exactly that.  For sure, overhauls like Holiday Inn are standard in the hospitality industry.   And retailing as well.  In our minds, all businesses need to emulate that same kind of straightforward brand thinking.  As well as the news that renovations are underway:  “We’re making over our brand to better reflect who we are – and what our customers want.  Watch for it!”  Now that’s a conversation we’d like to participate in – with “R”s that can be named.