jdean3 - Tales of Transformation

A nudge for people like me.

Social media is a good thing for your professional development, growth of your company, engagement of your peers & employees & customers, better inter-company interaction and we all simply need to get on board.

If you are anything like me, you work hard.  You put way too much time into your career (at the expense of your spouse, children, family & friends) and dismiss social media as a waist of time for folks without something better to do.  If you are over 40 but not yet enjoying retirement, chances are you lean in that direction…if you have been in the automotive industry for the past 15+ years, you are overwhelmingly guilty.

I am amazed at the number of “marketers” that don’t even have a facebook account (or myspace, twitter, linkedin, etc) and refer to blogs like they are simply publications or channels for advertising.  Most simply miss the fact that it is the clearest direct line to consumers thoughts and beliefs that exists and without participating they are losing a tremendous opportunity to do more than just improve their exposure.

Plus, they are missing a fabulous way to stay (at least) partially connected to friends with very little effort…that they would otherwise not talk with for years.  It takes a bit of effort to get started…it takes a bit of courage to get over the additional “exposure”…but the rewards are certainly worth it.

The added benefit of actually learning to use these tools to branch out and meet others is the REAL value of this media that I am just learning about.

Jump in!  Try it yourself.

Note:  Forward this note of encourage through email or “snail mail” to someone you know that hasn’t yet joined the social media circle.  They aren’t likely to find it on this blog anyway.  I’m hoping that some of my reluctant nominees that are reading these “pre-posts” will get the hint.  

This story of transitions, will document several transformations at once.  It is blurry and confusing in the midst of such upheaval, but I am hoping more clarity unfolds as the story develops.  In the meantime, I will simply write what comes to mind.

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I made a rather bold accusation in an earlier post that one of the terrible by-products of a massive downsizing was the loss of passion in employees.  Indeed, many lifelong loyal employees at my own Company were walked out the door (or asked to leave) in a massive restructuring that extended throughout the entire automotive industry.  The survivors of this restructuring are struggling with how to re-engage.

Even those that remain in positions of leadership feel the lack of cohesion and synergy around them.  Remnants of our old culture mixed with the birth of a new culture not yet embedded make for a confusing environment to encourage true passion in your work.

Many simply won’t re-engage.  They are aggressively pursuing other interests and it is only a matter of time before they find something that will draw their attention.

Others, however, want to stay and make Ford the best automotive company in the world.  They just don’t know what or how to mentally and EMOTIONALLY reconnect at the same level they were previously.  We shouldn’t underestimate this huge leap of faith and courage that will be required to do so.

Our HR departments are now tasked with the monumental assignment of kick starting “employee engagement”.  How much will it cost to recapture your heart?

It is not a criticism of leadership or negative commentary on the decisions that were made during a painful restructuring.  It is a simple statement of a natural human phenomena of recovery.  In a traumatic event many people enter a period of shock.  It is a self defensive reaction that takes some time and attention to resolve.

Unfortunately, the easy answer of money won’t fix the issue of lack of passion or true engagement.  Sure, we would all like to have more money…it helps compensate for a lot of other things.  But even if you gave everyone a 20% pay raise (which would be a ridiculous move for a corporation), it would be a short lived improvement in satisfaction and ultimately no impact on real engagement or passion in employees.

We have to get back to the fundamentals of what makes people tick.  It’s about each individual and their own desire to feel wanted and connected.  Restoring their sense of value can be helped with pay raises…but their sense of feeling wanted and connected takes something else.

The obvious mandate is to provide a sense of purpose for everyone.  Restoring the health of the Company, hitting profit targets, sales targets, product & service targets are all worthy goals that every member of the team can aspire to improve and know how their contributions impact those results.  I believe this is hard work but most managers are skilled in helping employees know how their department or job impacts the goals of the organization.

The more difficult task, however is encouraging true engagement (or “passion” as I call it).  Employees can easily resign themselves to simply having a job.  They may be satisfied with their job (even rate it “completely satisfied” on internal surveys), happy with their surroundings, work-life balance and generally enjoy the relationships they have in the office.  They may even acknowledge a sense of purpose in what they do and perform their jobs competitively and typically in an acceptable manner (sometimes even much better).

To some inexperienced managers (or worse, those that don’t know the difference), they could feel their department was fully engaged.  Their employee satisfaction scores look really good….they don’t have visibly unhappy people walking around…they see people having fun at the water cooler.  They may have no reason to suspect their Company is being “shorted”.

A passionate employee is more likely to be less satisfied in this environment regardless of how they answer corporate surveys.  They see more potential for themselves, their Company, their teammates, etc..  They are often frustrated with limitations, bureaucracy or micro-management.  They are incredible assets to any Company that can harness their energy and unleash them in the right environment.

Fostering passion in employees is not a skill set that is universally developed in most corporations.  In fact, a manager that has the ability to spot passion and channel it effectively is rare.  To fully succeed in a globally competitive arena however, it is a requirement.

What would make you passionate about your job?  What would it take to make you the biggest ambassador in the history of your Company?  If they made a list of the most influential employees (in the eyes of consumers) would you be on the list or do you aspire to even be considered?  It’s a question that EVERY company needs to ask if they want sustainability.

You can’t Buy passion….you can only foster it.

At this morning’s opening of the AMA MRC conference, Sheryl Connelly, with the Global Consumer Trends and futuring for Ford Motor Company, discussed her role within Ford. Her job is to understand the world. She describes herself as the only person in the company who doesn’t concentrate on cars: instead, she looks at demographics, consumer trends and scenario planning. Ford follows a process to provide a broad view and diverse opinions. Ford tracks over 200 trends in a trend database and then rolls that up into ten major tends. She then educates the rest of the company on those trends.

Ford’s top trends:

• Aging population. The population is getting older, driven by: medical advances, active lifestyle, delayed marriage, delayed parenthood and declining fertility. What does the mean for Ford customers? Do you give up your car keys at 80 if you think you will live to be 102? This is significant in some markets (i.e., Japan) and not present in other markets (i.e., Russia).
• Changing physiology: Short and long term physical changes that accompany aging, affluence and urbanization. Important among these is the increase in obesity, especially childhood obesity:  even infant obesity is up 70% in 20 years.
• Consumer is King. Consumers have unlimited choice and options, making them more savvy and more demanding, driven by: globalization, market fragmentation, on demand, online auctions and word of mouth.
• Rising Power of Women. Women’s power growing around the globe as social, political and economic status rises. Key drivers: improved education, career opportunities, financial independence, and delayed marriage and parenthood. Women control 85% of household financial decisions.
• Ethical Consumption. Increasing concern over health, society and environment has consumers integrating ethical and religious beliefs into the purchase process. Key drivers: power of the Internet, rising trust in NGOs, butterfly effect (local scale, global impact), citizen groups and shifting accountability.
• Crisis of Confidence. Threats to financial security, health and personal safety has consumers feeling vulnerable. Examples of firms reacting to this: BofA’s Keep the Change program has brought in 2M new customers (6M accounts); Hyundai will make your car payments for three months if you lose your job (and now Ford will as well).
• Careful Consumption. The consumer “balances practicality with passion” and exercises self-discipline, thoroughness and deliberation.  Key drivers include the credit crunch and end of the era of excess.
• Safety & Security. Consumers seeking out reassurance of personal safety, security, health and wellness. Key drivers: new threats, mistrust in business and government, media, technological advances, demand for precision and perfection.
• Information Addiction. Consumers have become reliant on access to real-time information, giving them greater control, power and success. Key drivers: knowledge as status, infuentials, greater scrutiny, time poverty, just in time lifestyle.
• Information Overload. Too much information can be even more problematic than too little information. Key drivers: flogs and blogola, astroturfing (fake grassroots campaigns), Lonelygirl15, advertorials.

So what’s next? No one can predict the future. “I want the organization to never be surprised in our brightest dreams or our darkest nightmares.” Ford relies heavily on scenario planning to make sure that it is contemplating the actions required by these major trends.

Attempting a post from a video on Youtube.  The limitation of Flickr was 90 seconds only .  We’ll give this a trial.

OK.  This is a bit humorous, to say the least.  In the last 24 hours I have given a handful of my friends at work, facebook and Linkedin (which I’m new to using this summer) a chance to preview this “work in process” site and the response has been quite interesting.  It seems that while there a few friends who immediately jumped in with comments (THANK YOU!), the vast majority have sent me emails or called.

The general consensus (after getting over the shock of seeing what I’m doing) is supportive and it seems there are a number of “suggested topics” people are proposing.  So here is your chance.

Log in anonymously if you feel more comfortable, and list your suggested topic.  Then we can see if people agree with your suggestion or not over time (the little voting thumbs up or down next to each comment).

I’m not promising I’ll tackle the topics…but it can, at least, be a great test of the comment section of this blog site.  I want to make sure all the functionality is working as designed before the Jan 1st launch.

Remember, I’m open to criticism and thought provoking advice to make the site worth doing.  I’ve learned a lot so far, but to have staying power this will need to gain more of an interactive flavor.

So….what do you want?

PS:  Next post 10/24

Arguably one of the best boss’ I’ve ever had, taught me one of the most important lessons I’ve learned professionally.  It was during an incredibly stressful period of time and he was losing a political battle being waged like nothing he had ever experienced.  If you were with or have heard of  “the Old Ford culture”  you know that what is often described as a culture of “sharp elbows” is a polite way to say one might mistake an ear biting Mike Tyson for Shirley Temple.  It was ugly to watch.

I recall seeing how low he was and how it impacted his outlook on just about everything.  It was troubling.  He was a beaten man and was visibly demoralized.

The fact of the matter was, he wasn’t in the “loop” any longer.  He was slowly and methodically being pushed out.  He was being ridiculed  and he knew it.  Of course, it was all in the name of performance.  Usually the beauty and fallacy of a myriad of performance metrics (half positive and half negative) is there are enough to paint any story you want…whenever you want.  And his managers were painting a pretty negative picture.

He orchestrated his own exit from the situation.

I met him a few months later and we discussed those last few weeks he was my boss.  His words stick with me now and are as applicable today as they were for him then.  He said “Don’t let ANYONE tell you what your value is.  That’s your job.”

It is awfully easy to let a personal spat, a performance review, a downsizing, down-grading, job reshuffling or even a negative verbal comment to make you feel like garbage.  Others (without the skill to properly lend constructive criticism or perhaps even the talent to know the value of one priority metric over another), may treat you like your value is less than you believe.  Some might even mistakenly draw conclusions based on others evaluations of your value, but that does NOT establish your true value!

March to your own drum.  Don’t let someone else set your value.  Hear their words, watch their actions, accept their decisions, apply their suggestions….but don’t let it sway your opinion of the value you hold.  They are fallible and have every right to be wrong.

We too often let others define our own success.  I love the multitude of ranks in the military, the boy scouts and most corporate structures.  It helps us have targets to shoot for and ladders to climb (metaphorically).  But it is simply a stupid stripe to your 5 year old!

One of the best stories I tell about my daughter was when she was about 10 years old.  I had just been promoted back to Detroit from Colorado.  It was a big promotion and I was thrilled and excited to tell the family.  We’ve moved 8 times, so it wasn’t like the thrill of moving did much for them.  So after giving the good news…my daughter sat quietly for a few seconds and then said

“I don’t get it.  Why do we have to move back to Detroit?!  You are gone all the time anyway….why don’t you just keep coming back here when you come home?”

She didn’t mean to bring a tear to her father…but she has that affect. If only had I listened closer.

The fact of the matter was, she could care less about my rank or job.  She only cared about what was important!

Difficult times have silver linings.  Look around.  Enjoy what really matters!  You are the ONLY one who can establish your value.