The. Best. Order. Update. Ever.
Getting a “thank you” for a purchase is always nice. Scott at Blankbaby had a great buying experience with a premier Philadelphia clothing store recently. But when I saw this post on Mere Cat it just blew me away. What would it take to motivate your people to be that creative with a “thank you” note. I’m going to buy something from CD Baby just because of Tony’s story. Here’s a little taste of what they said:
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!
Read the whole thing on Mere Cat. It’s an excellent snapshot into real motivation.There’s employee engagement, the theory, and there’s employee engagement, the practice. I’d go with a little less talking about engagement and “discretionary effort” and a helluva lot more of the kind of creativity that CD Baby used. Wow.
NB: If I had a job in a big HR organization, I’d be thinking about forwarding that CD baby note to your chief customer officer and the heads of marketing and operations right away. The price of a dull thank you and a dazzling thank you is the same.
Why Managing People Is Like Gardening
I spent a lot of time in my garden this past weekend. I like gardening, especially the quiet time to do a little thinking. And often, when I have time to think, I think about HR. (Yeah, I know there are other things to think about, but I was gardening and Dancing With the Stars wasn’t going to be on for a couple of days.)
Good HR is Like Good Gardening
I was spraying Miracle Grow on my plants. I doused the forsythia, soaked the Austrian Pines, and gave a good drink to the cherry trees. My wife spent the whole day outside, too, weeding, cleaning, and pruning. (See where all this is going?) And as I was using the Miracle Grow, I thought about how good HR is like good gardening. Here’s how:
- Fertilize Frequently. Sure, plants will grow on their own…as long as the conditions are right, you prepared the soil just so, and they’re placed in the right location. But how often do all those circumstances come together? Also, you want your plants to grow healthy, strong, and quickly. You don’t have a lifetime. And it’s the same with your employees: Sure, they can grow on their own, but how much fertilizer — and I don’t mean manure — do you use on them? Isn’t it better to use the equivalent of Miracle Grow on them? To give them all the advantages you can to help them grow as quickly as they can?
- Pull Weeds When They’re Small. Weeding is best done when weeds are small and before they get established. Plus, weeds pop up all over the place, and you have to be diligent to keep a clean garden that thrives and looks like what you imagined. Have you ever left what we used to call a “pricker bush” grow for a few weeks in May, then when you go to pull it out the thorns stick in your hands and you can’t really get the entire root? That’s what happens when you let little problems grow into big ones. How many times have you said to yourself, “I should have gotten rid of him when I had the chance,” and then had to deal with the repercussions of progressive discipline and severance payments? Weeding out prickly and unwanted employees early is a real necessity.
- The Best Time to Plant a Tree is Ten Years Ago. This is one of my all time favorite sayings. And, it’s just so true. New gardeners are always tempted to plant showy annuals. They’re easy, they’re not fussy and they don’t cost much. Plus, they don’t really require much in the way of preparation — buy a flat of petunias, plop them in, and voila: instant garden. Kinda. Actually, knowledgeable gardeners know to plant trees first. Trees start slowly, but they form the basis of an entire garden. They anchor the plants and they tie all the garden elements together. If you mean what you say about talent management, then selecting talent for 10 years down the road, and nurturing that talent, will pay off greatly. Great companies know this formula and the difference between petunias and oaks.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Those are three major elements that link gardening and HR practices. There are a number of links, which I’ll write about in the next week or so. Those include:
- Water Deeply
- Select The Right Plants for Your Climate
- Some Plants Like Full Sun and Some Like Shade: Know the Difference
- Managing Garden Pests
- Keeping the Roots Cool: The Benefits of Mulch
- Plant Diversity Makes for Interesting Gardens
- Concentrating Visual Focus: The Rule of Three
- Good Gardening Requires Getting a Little Dirt Under Your Fingernails
Head to Head
Meetup.com seems to be gearing up. They’re looking to double their workforce this year. The biggest, best competitor for talent? Google.
In order to recruit the folks he might lose to the googleplex, CEO Scott Heiferman has made a head-to-head comparison.
All Work and No Play
How’s that 80-hour workweek working for you? You know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. (Nope, I’m not going to bother with the PC version — it is what it is.)
Robyn McMaster has a very interesting post on her excellent Brain Based Biz site called Play to Recharge Your Brain. Robyn offers some very good suggestions to put a little play in your day. Plus, she links to a Psychology Today Burnout Test. Yikes. Read it and weep.
Do you have HR programs in place that promote play? Um, no, meetings are not play, I don’t care if each of them start out with a “teambuilding exercise.”
One HR executive I know used to have a daily game of P-I-G in her office with her team. They had a small basketball hoop and a Nerf basketball. The winner usually was the one who could bank a shot off the window, hit the ceiling, and get nothing but net. It was real play…and one of the highest work performance groups ever.
If You Don’t Have Something Nice to Say About Anybody, Come Sit Next to Me
The headline is from my favorite line in Steel Magnolias, and I think it just about sums up corporate whispering campaigns. So, when I saw this “Let’s set aside some time for trashing coworkers” I thought it was just perfect. I’ve never been a big fan of gossip circles and the adult version of high school cliques, but they certainly exist.
Just how much gossip do you tolerate (or encourage) at your place, especially the kind targeted at individuals?
[Card via someecards.com. There are lots of funny cards there, but some are very NSFW.]
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