The Open Secret of Success

I’ve borrowed this post’s title from a piece on “the financial page” of the New Yorker written by James Surowiecki.  Obviously, an open secret isn’t a secret.

It’s often said that what employees want most at work is respect, something human resources professionals often write about it.  Some experts argue that focusing completely on respect misses the mark–that it’s more important for employers to be in touch with the changing concerns of employees.   Either way, employees and their point of view need more attention.  Employment lawyers know that if employees receive this attention, there will be less work for employment lawyers to do: fewer union campaigns, discrimination charges, and employment lawsuits.

Two things are important in showing employees respect or getting in touch with employee concerns:  (1) encouraging employee input that’s used in practice, and (2) implementing a teamwork approach that focuses on the long view of success rather than the quick hit.  These two principles aren’t readily embraced by the American workplace. 

Most companies still believe that the best ideas come from a select few, so employee input isn’t sought or goes unused.  Most companies look for a superstar quarterback who can throw a long touchdown pass rather than a team that moves deliberately down the field–or as legendary University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal used to say, three yards at a time in a cloud of dust.  Most companies are top-down organizations and have difficulty believing that employees up and down the line have worthwhile ideas.

According to Surowiecki in his New Yorker article and Matthew May in his book The Elegant Solution, one company has figured out that all employees help achieve extraordinary success.  In 2008, Toyota will overtake General Motors as the auto industry’s sales leader, having already become number one in profit and innovation.  Toyota implements about a million new ideas a year, most of them coming from ordinary employees.  These ideas are small but, cumulatively, have allowed Toyota to eclipse other automobile companies

Employees feel respected and believe their concerns are being addressed.  The grind-it-out, ten-year-plan approach holds sway over the fix-it-quick, win-the-lottery mentality.   As Surowiecki says, ”That’s why Toyota can afford to hide in plain sight:  it knows the system is easy to understand but hard to follow.”  

With the economy’s present troubles, many employers are desperately looking for a shortcut.  Rather than relying on the team, they’re laying people off.  Instead of seeking solutions from employees who know the business, they’re engaging consultants who don’t.  Perhaps another way of saying what Surowiecki articulates is that they can’t see the forest for the trees.

1. 

   Linda Sandiford says:

   May 29, 2008 at 11:21 am

   In my organization there are very few people who have input. How would you go about getting those higher up to see the trees?
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   May 29, 2008 at 4:51 pm

   I was afraid someone was going to ask that, Linda. You can take comfort (or not) in knowing that there are a bunch of people in your shoes. As I noted in my post, most American companies aren’t open to a lot of employee input.

   I’ll take a shot at giving you a few ideas and hope that others may weigh in as well.

   It’s important for HR to solicit employee ideas and then take them to upper management. The ideas can, of course, be ignored, but if you pick a couple of good ones, they may get the attention of someone at the top. That’s all you need to have a shot at getting the ball rolling. You run the risk of turning off your employees by getting their ideas and then not being able to get them noticed, but that’s a risk worth taking, in my opinion.

   You need to keep talking about the need for greater employee input. If HR has a seat at the table with upper management, at least occasionally, it’s important to advocate for the solicitation of ideas from all employees. That’s another time when a couple of good employee ideas you have can be floated to the top brass.

   There is an audio conference being sponsored by M. Lee Smith Publishers on June 25 called “30 Ways to Engage Employees So They’ll Act Like They Own the Place.” That’s sort of a back door approach to answering your question, but you may pick up ideas that will help you get upper management’s attention. I do some audio conferences from M. Lee Smith Publishers from time to time. I’m not doing that one, but it sounds interesting.

   Finally, I’ll be completely self-serving by mentioning a training video I’ve done called “Executive Summary: Employment Law for the C-Suite.” While I cover substantive employment law topics, I also deal with the practicalities of things like employee input, which will help avoid the legal problems all employers have. It’s designed for people at the top. You’ve still got to persuade them to watch it, but it’s only about 50 minutes in length.

   You can get more information about the audio conference and the C-Suite training video by going to HRHero.com, the M. Lee Smith Publishers website.

   I wish I had better advice. What we’re talking about involves rough sledding. It’s important, however, to keep talking about it.

   Again, I invite others to weigh in on Linda’s question.
3. 

   Linda Sandiford says:

   May 30, 2008 at 4:11 pm

   Thanks for your input! Miller & Martin is our legal counsel and everyone there is always so helpful.
   I guess I will keep pushing my agenda and hope that if I annoy our CEO enough he will listen.
4. 

   John Phillips says:

   May 30, 2008 at 5:05 pm

   Linda, thanks for your comment about M&M. We try.

   Persistence is important, particularly when you’re right.

   Have a good weekend.
5. 

   John Phillips says:

   May 31, 2008 at 6:51 am

   Bootstrapper, thanks for including my post. Your current carnival seems to to have even more diversity than ususal.