Category Archives: talent management

CRM Evolution and 14 Myths About Generation Y

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There are quite a few myths about Gen Y. I’m excited to debunk some of these myths and provide Gen Y clarification at next month’s NYC event CRM Evolution. I will join up with Jon Blum–former Director, Sales Development of Multi-Channel Sales at Best Buy, current Chief Illuminator for customer service consultancy Infinite Green–to lead a session on how to manage Gen Y.

To gear up for NYC I recently read Gen Y researcher Bruce Tulgan‘s book Not Everyone Gets A Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y. Tulgan has done years of research interviewing thousands of millennials. He knows his stuff.

Tulgan is an authority on the topic and while he appears to poke fun at Gen Y, he has done his due diligence. He understands how to create happier more productive workplaces where Baby Boomers, Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers can peacefully co-exist in harmony, or something like it.

Below I have recapped 14 myths from Tulgan’s book Everyone Gets A Trophy. Below you will read the myth, and then the “reality.” I also riff off of his comments with some of my own thoughts.

*Note: I use first person here because I am a millennial. The first person should represent my generation, not me personally.Also note there are around 80 million millennials, born between 1980 and about 1995.

Myth #1 Gen Yers are disloyal and unwilling to make real commitments to employers.

Tulgan argues that Gen Y’ers are indeed loyal, but our breed of loyalty can be described as “just in time loyalty.” Tulgan clarifies this loyalty as different than “kingdom loyalty.” Gen Y loyalty is “transactional loyalty” you get in a free market. The truth is millennials don’t feel limited and just like your best customers, we will come back again and again if you, the employer, make yourself interesting. Granted the “talent war” is not in full swing considering the economy is still struggling, these rules do still apply for high performers.

Myth#2 We won’t do the grunt work.

Millennials will do grunt work, but not in exchange for vague long-term promises of rewards that vest in the deep distant future. Gen Yers’ career paths will be erratic and eclectic, but as Tulgan points out–that doesn’t mean our career paths won’t be progressive and developmental. We grew up playing video games. If we are told the rules of the game before we dive in, we are more likely to continue playing. For example-if you want A you have to do B. If you want C you have to do D and so on and so forth.

Myth #3: We don’t know much and have short attention spans.

We do know stuff. We just don’t value the same knowledge as our elders. That being said, we certainly have much more info at our fingertips. Granted it is possible all this time in social media has ruined our attention spans–if you make something relevant and interesting for us, we will pay attention. Tell us a story. Teach through narrative. Make us understand how our contributions are critical to the greater good of the company. Most leaders don’t do this enough. Once a week is good. Once a day is ideal.

Myth#4 We want the top job from day one.

Ok this might be true, but give us some time. When we were kids we dressed up in our parents suits/ doctors uniform/ fire fighter hats. Perhaps you did this too but when you reached a certain age your active imagination was tamed. Ours wasn’t. It could be the proliferation of media is to blame for our notion that we can be an overnight success–a popular theme on many TV shows. This is simply not true, and all millennials eventually learn this. It is said we want to hit ground running from day one. We want to make an impact. We want to identify problems that nobody else has identified and solve problems that nobody else has solved. We want to make existing things better–we want to invent new things.

Myth #5 We need work to be fun.

Gen y’ers want to be taken seriously. We want work to be engaging. We want to learn, to be challenged and to understand the relationship between our work and the overall mission of the organization. We want to work with good people and have flexibility in where when and how we work.

Myth#6 We want to be left alone.

This is quite the opposite. Tulgan argues that if we care “one bit about the job, “ we want managers to know who we are, what we are doing, and engage with us, provide guidance and help us solve problems and keep track of our successes.

Myth#7 We want our managers to do our work for us.

We want managers who will spend time teaching us how to do our work very well and very fast. If you care about quality, I suggest you stress the focus on quality and not quantity. Organizations make much too many unforced errors due to unrealistic productivity demands. They end up having to do damage control later. Let’s stop making ourselves crazy and product quality work the first time around.

Myth #8 We don’t care about climbing the proverbial career ladder.

According to Tulgan’s research our career paths will be erratic and eclectic. However that doesn’t mean our career paths won’t be progressive and developmental. Gen Y career paths will be self-building path made up of learning, relationships, proof of their ability to add value, and lifestyle flexibility. Not a ladder but a tapestry.

Myth#9 Money and traditional benefits don’t matter to us.

We are savvy about offers, money and benefits, but these are only a threshold issue. Considering we saw our parents lose their 401K plans and the disaster the last few years have brought, we are very conscious of taking care of our future. Unfortunately many millennials are in debt from school–and thanks to so much news in the media about how toxic debt is–we are very self-aware and resourceful when it comes to getting rid of debt. We want to make sure we have a steady stream of income to help us do that.

Myth#10 Money is the only thing that matters to us.

This myth is a contrast to myth #9, but still a prevalent one. Money is a threshold issue. If we are asking for more what we’re really asking is “what do I need to do to earn more?” Once you meet the threshold of competitive money and benefits, Gen Yers care interested in five other things: schedule, relationships, task choice, learning opportunities, and location. For more on money, see myth #13.

Myth#11 We don’t respect their elders.

We do respect elders. We are closer to our parents than any other generation has ever been. But we want respect too. Perhaps Baby Boomers were so used to disrespect due to elders who had suffered through WWII induced post-traumatic stress disorders–and succumbed to adopting an attitude of “thank you may I have another.” Gen Y was raised by parents who fought in Vietnam–a controversial war that divided the country and changed the relationship of the press to the presidential administration. Our mothers were the first to attempt the “do it all attitude.” Raise the kids, put food on the table, go to work and get a divorce if they wanted one. I do not have an answer regarding how these socio-economic things shaped the child-rearing of millennials, I am just recognizing it did. An as a result if we feel we are being treated unfairly we will say so, or leave. I think this is a healthy attribute. Too many people put up with too much abuse from superiors.  

Myth#12 We want to learn only from computers.

Tulgan argues that “from computers we want to learn stuff that is easy. But we need the human element to do our best learning.” We don’t want to be left in a cubicle all day to do the same task over and over and over. If you actually care about your “bottom line” you will recognize that happy worker bees make better products. Human beings were not build to sit stationary at desks all day doing the same thing day in day out. We want to get out of our seats. We want walking meetings. We crave variety, surprise and engagement. Perhaps our parents were too afraid to ask for more. Perhaps we have too much chutzpah, but we feel life should offer us more. According to Tulgan we “learn best from a combination of the human element – coaching, direction, guidance, support, shared wisdom–and the powerful capacity of menu-driven information systems to guide us through the tidal wave of info available at our fingertips.“ I would agree with that statement.

Myth #13: It’s impossible to turn us into long-term employees.

You can turn us into long-term employees. You’ll just have to do it one day at a time. Remember we don’t trust anyone, considering what we’ve seen unfold in corporate America in the last ten years. The last two years–Wall St., Madoff, and the decline of Main Street–make the Enron scandal look like small potatoes. We will be loyal, but you have to earn our trust through consistent “trustworthy” behavior. We crave this feeling of “safety” so to those organizations who can create this atmosphere based on trust, you will find the most loyal, committed and hard-working millennial employees.

Myth #14: We will never make good managers because we are so self-focused.

Of course, we can be good managers. We are not aliens. We crave human connection. We are nurturing and enjoy this aspect of work relationships. We meet friends, spouses, and mentors at work. If you find your people appear self-focused, I think you are hiring the wrong kind of talent. Also beware of the look-alike syndrome. Organizations tend to hire people who are like them. If you want to prevent this than you will need to work harder to diversify your sourcing pool and create a thorough screening process. Also, as a sidenote, if you hire the millennial with the gleaming resume-Ivy League-and all that, you might be missing some great people who have just as much to offer particularly in the realm of street smarts, something you aren’t told you will need in business. These millennials who don’t have a cookie cutter resume are more worldly, mature and intuitive, skills relevant to a management position.

The Feedback Sandwich: Delicious or Deadly?

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Those of you who know me know I love to cook.

If you’ve been over for dinner, you know I like to cook while the Food Network is on in the background. I find the Food Network–particularly the competitive reality shows–educational and inspiring.

I am amazed by the competitions featuring “everyday people” who create works of delicious edible art under extreme pressure situations. While I enjoy watching these chefs make magic in the kitchen, what I enjoy almost as much is the judging portion.

Every show is different whether it’s Chopped, 24 Hour Restaurant, Extreme Chef, Iron Chef or Food Network Star. What the shows share is the obvious vulnerability of the contestants during the feedback section.

Many of them bite their lip. Some of them cry. The novices make excuses, and are shut down by the judges (this is always awkward for the viewer).

Most fun is seeing the winner light up and discuss their motivation–whether it’s a parent who believed in them and has since passed on, or a spouse or child at home.

I enjoy these culinary competitions because I enjoy learning about how companies improve their own performance with continuous feedback.

Stomaching the Feedback Session

There are a few different ways to provide feedback. One is the Sandwich technique. This Sandwich technique is controversial. It usually goes something like this:

Something positive: [Supervisor or coach begins with a light note to warm up the employee. Cuts the tension in the room].
Something negative: [Supervisor dives into areas for improvement. Employee is better prepared to hear negative criticism as a result of mood enhancement from first comment].
Something positive: [Employee walks away from the meeting feeling good about themselves. Absorbs feedback "meat" without anger or resentment].

Here’s why people dismiss the Sandwich Technique (note comments in parentheses–why technique might be flawed).

Something positive: [Start out on a light note that muffles the really important employee feedback].
Something negative: [Employee isn't even listening, but rather basking in the sun of the first comment].
Something positive: [Employee is soaking in all the positivity. He didn't hear one ounce of criticism. His performance is perfect as far as he's concerned. Piece of cake. No problemo].

Others prefer the more simplistic and traditional technique.

Something Negative:[Employee is sweating, employee wants to jump in a hole, employee loses all self-worth].
Something Positive: [Light at the end of the tunnel, employee sees hope].

Providing feedback is not always easy, but it’s good for everyone. The boss, the employee & the business.

If both participants remember feedback is NOT PERSONAL, everyone will feel better.

The employee can take the actionable feedback and understand how to nip the weakness in the bud. Additionally, feedback should generally feel like a positive experience.

The supervisor is showing the employee is getting the feedback because they are an important contributor to the business.

While I do not have a position on which technique is necessarily better, I will say that all companies need to TAKE THE TIME to provide feedback to employees and to create some kind of development path for them.

Also employees need to be able to listen to feedback.

Successful people are generally humble (at least the talented chefs like Bobby Flay seem to give off that vibe–think Iron Chef) and listen to the comments.

Feedback is powerful. Seek it out. Provide it.

Do you think I have what it takes to be the next food network star? Be honest.

:-]

Behind the Cloud: An Interview with Salesforce.com’s CEO Marc Benioff

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Author’s Note: I interviewed Marc Benioff last January for Customer Management IQ. I have re-posted it for those of you who might have missed it.

Marc Benioff is arguably one of the most exciting CEOs of our generation. Benioff, CEO of salesforce.com, a trailblazer and game changer in the CRM cloud computing space, has released his newest book (co-authored with Carlye Adler) Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went From Idea to Billion-Dollar Company—And Revolutionized an Industry. Benioff himself once sat in the call center technical support seat. Benioff believes the call center is salesforce.com’s next billion dollar industry. And with the chatter about the service cloud, it very well might be. Benioff discusses his new book for entrepreneurs, the future of salesforce.com and why philanthropy is good for business.

In your book Behind the Cloud you write about your young adulthood and the fact that you started your first software program when you were 15 years old. Your parents allowed you to travel to Europe alone to research a castle you were going to replicate in an adventure game you were creating for Atari 800. You talk about how your grandmother wrote the music for the games. How did the support from your family impact your entrepreneurial spirit?

The support I had from my family was pivotal. There were so many things that they did: My grandmother drove me to RadioShack so I could play around on the TRS 80 Model 1, my mother gave me the freedom to run a business in high school, but provided the parental guidance and support a kid needed. (She let me go to Scotland, but did call Scotland Yard when I forgot to call home.)

It was not only the support, but the model my family provided, which influenced me. My grandfather was an innovative attorney who had his own practice, and he created BART, San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit. My father had a chain of women’s clothing stores. My entrepreneurial spirit was nurtured just by watching them. It felt normal to be 15 and run a company out of my bedroom, or later, from my dorm room. It seemed like a natural thing to do.

You were a customer service rep in technical sales support at Apple. Many of our members oversee customer service support teams. Can you tell our audience what this experience was like for you?

At first, I didn’t like it. I much preferred my previous summer job at Apple where I was writing some of the first native assembly language for the Macintosh, and I enjoyed the perks like the fruit smoothies in the fridge and seeing Steve Jobs walk around and motivate the developers.

I was a shy computer geek and I was passionate about building technology, I didn’t want to talk with people on the phone. It turned out to be better than I expected, and in fact, I learned a critical lesson that about the power of each and every customer exchange. If the exchange was executed as well as possible—if we made the customer truly successful—we had the opportunity to transform him or her into an Apple loyalist and evangelist. This introduced me to the importance of customer success and has influenced everything I’ve done since.

Is there a place for On-Premise “enterprise” software such as Oracle, SAP or other applications or should all enterprise applications move to the cloud like Salesforce? If yes can you describe the reasons and applications for these On-Premise applications?

I believe that all enterprise applications should move to the cloud, but that doesn’t mean everyone else thinks it should! There are still companies very heavily invested in the on-premise-model and they want to ensure there’s still a place for it.

I’m glad we’re on the newer side of the equation, though. There’s not a very promising future for on-premise because customers are ready for a change. Big investments in client-server produced returns that were elusive. Furthermore, the economy that we have been dealing with for the past couple of years has caused customers to question a lot of conventional wisdom—especially when it comes to technology. Customers don’t want to part with big buckets of cash or tap into precious credit lines to finance big-ticket purchases of software, hardware and the data center infrastructure that goes with them.

Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are finding themselves confronted by companies like Google, Amazon.com and salesforce.com. And, perhaps to everyone’s surprise, these are not scrappy dot-com companies anymore. Google does everything (it’s even a verb). Amazon.com is the Internet’s biggest retailer and its Web services business uses more bandwidth than its retail business. Salesforce.com hit $1 billion in revenue and you can now get all your enterprise apps on demand.

At a time when many tech companies are wobbling, we drew nearly 20,000 registrants at our annual Dreamforce event in San Francisco last month. That’s about double last year’s numbers. It sends us a message that companies are hungry for better answers than they are getting from SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. Having seen what’s possible with a new way, companies have been exercising their power of choice.

Salesforce.com has established the viability of cloud-based computing. The scalability and security issues that IT was very concerned about early in the cloud-based evolution have been addressed and validated. Do you envision that all future software applications will be delivered as a service? Over what period of time do you see this occurring?

We are seeing a major shift to cloud computing, and the trend will accelerate. However, no new technology completely replaces another. We have many customers who still use some form of mainframe and will probably continue to do so for some time. But the best minds and the best new ideas move on. When was the last time that someone told you about a hot new shrink-wrapped business app? Maybe 10 years ago! The best innovation is happening in the cloud right now, and customers know it.

How fast? That’s the big question. Now, every major analyst firm sees cloud computing expanding its share of the overall IT market. The next five years, and the next 10 years will look very different. Right now we are only at the very beginning. I still have a lot of work to do.

You have said that it’s critical for new companies to develop a customer-centric culture early on. Do you ever feel like you have to sacrifice culture to meet quarter-over-quarter growth?

This is a difficult question. In general, no, we don’t have to sacrifice culture to achieve high growth. In fact, I think the culture we built—specifically our integrated philanthropy model and our V2MOM management system—allows us to achieve quarter over quarter growth.

That’s not to say there haven’t been changes. We’ve made enormous changes, financial changes, leadership changes, organizational changes, to prepare to be the company we are today. We’ve tapped people from larger companies whose experience we needed. Other talent, people who have been with us from the earliest days, have moved on. There’s a part of me that misses how I once interviewed every hire, knew everyone’s name, and drove golf balls down empty halls with the team. But the other part of me appreciates that those halls are no longer empty, that we’ve built something beyond my greatest expectations together, and we’ve stayed true to who we are as a company. Companies must change as they evolve. It’s the only way.

Green branding is trendy right now—this is something you have always done at Salesforce. How do you think giving back changes a company’s culture?

Our people are here for more meaningful reason than just to collect a paycheck. The idea of giving people paid time off to volunteer was something I learned from Alan Hassenfeld, the former chairman of Hasbro. He demonstrated how doing something purposeful made employees feel more invested in the company and inspired them to do their best. I thought that secondary gain further justified the hours our employees would be spending outside our office. I hoped the volunteer program would prevent them from feeling as rudderless as I had during my time at Oracle. I think it has.

Our employees have given more than 165,000 hours to the community and helped over 7,500 nonprofits improve how they manage their organizations. Along the way, we’ve become a better company. Our employees say they are more fulfilled, more productive and I can tell you they are more loyal. It’s because we share a common vision and that enables us to work well together. The people here spend days off together working in the community, they share pride in accomplishing something like bringing a new program to the Special Olympics or helping an eco-center get off the ground. Our foundation is a tool for collaboration. We share this model with our partners and vendors and customers. Before our annual Dreamforce event we participated together in a volunteer effort. Last year everyone came out and painted a school in the rain! You have to see one of these events and what happens. I’d love for more companies to join what we do or create their own program. It quickly becomes clear that by seeking profits and purpose together everybody wins.

Your new book is essentially an entrepreneur’s playbook. You talk about the challenges you incurred in your journey launching salesforce.com. In talking about some of the pushback you received from venture capitalists you remind us that MGM told Walt Disney Mickey Mouse would never be a hit because a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women. Can you talk about the significance of this reference for you?

The point is that you have to pursue what you believe is right, even if people tell you it won’t work. There will always be naysayers, but what would happen if we listened to them?  Imagine a world without Mickey Mouse. That’s no fun. And it’s not just Mickey whose appeal has been called into question. Pioneering companies like Cisco, E*TRADE, and Starbucks, have all been passed on by investors at some point.

VC’s weren’t interested in us when we were raising money. I felt that they were significantly undervaluing our company or they just didn’t understand what we were doing. A few told us that they believed in networked computing—not our disruptive ‘‘no software’’ model. Rejection from venture capitalists was not enough of a reason to consider getting out of our business or even changing our business, it just forced us to find a new way to raise funds. There’s always been another story from Walt Disney that’s guided me: ‘‘If you can dream it, you can do it.’’

Interview by Blake Landau.

Author’s Note: I interviewed Marc Benioff last January for Customer Management IQ. For those of you who might have missed it. This was first published on Customer Management IQ.

Make It A Sweet New Year for Attraction, Retention and Profits

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Last weekend I went to a dinner party at a friend’s house. Although the host went to great pains to cook decadent food, provide the perfect wine, and play great music, the party proved to be a disaster. The hosts of the party had two small children who were having a bad night. The misbehaving kids were severely disciplined in front of the guests. It made everyone uncomfortable and changed the entire mood of the meal.

Bringing in the Jewish New Year With Sweetness

I’m not saying that Jews don’t discipline their kids–they (we) do. But this week we focus our attention on all things sweet. We also focus on replenishing our palates.

In just under 24 hours Jews all over the world will bring in the new year and celebrate Rosh Hashanah by sitting around the dinner table and eating apples and honey. We indulge in apples and honey to bring in the Jewish New Year with something  sweet.

That makes sense to me–>Sweet food puts everyone in a good mood!

If you don’t believe me look at these numbers. Companies with high employee engagement had a 19 percent increase in operating income and almost 28 percent growth in earnings per share in 2007-2008. At the same time four out of five workers are not living up to their full potential or doing what it takes to help their organization succeed. As told to me by Jacob Morgan, employers are not harnessing the full power of their workforce and achieving the performance lift that high engagement delivers.*

Service With A Smile: Yes Please!

When you walk into a happy house (or switch that out for company, division, team etc) you can immediately feel the good energy.

Making your employees feel valued is important. Energy is important. VERY important. It leads to engagement.

I know when I went dress shopping this weekend-and the sales girl was chipper–dress shopping became fun. The sales girls  felt comfortable in the space they were selling in. They felt ownership over their selling process. They felt supported by the manager who was wandering the store letting her team do their thing.

It put them in a good mood. It put me in a good mood.

I now have a cute new rose colored dress, and they probably made their numbers for the night. Happiness has a domino effect. Just like most things it’s cultural and top-down.

Is your house warm and welcoming? If it isn’t perhaps you should bring your teams in something sweet this week to make them feel appreciated. May the new year be sweet for you, your employees and your customers.

The honey flows that way.

*Both research findings from Towers Perrin Global Report 2007-2008

Four Rules to Court the Influencer (and Why BIC and Montblanc Pens Are Equal in Value)

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This Labor Day weekend I started thinking about labor.

Labor in the sense that delivering on brand promise and customer experience takes exactly that–labor. And in thinking about customer segmentation don’t even bother looking at your customer’s shoes or watch anymore for a sign of customer value. In addition purchase history might not help you either.

The pen is mightier than the sword…whether it’s a  Montblanc or a BIC. And social has thrown out a lot of the longstanding rules about traditional marketing.

Four New Rules to Court the Influencer:

1. Treat all customers with respect.

People are watching and listening all the time. Whether you are respecting or disrespecting an influencer, or the guy ahead of her in line, you are probably screwed either way. Treat everyone with respect and you will have crossed your T’s and dotted your I’s.

2. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Keep the curmudgeons on your good side. They like to complain. Don’t let it be about your brand’s products or services.

3. Everything matters.

Every interaction & every customer touchpoint has to be seamless. Multi-channel messages need to be communicated with one message in one voice. Every step along the “throughput” of the customer matters.

4. Surprise and delight. Do it often. Do it randomly.

Surprise marketing is everything. Shake things up. Make your prospects and customers feel something when they come into your store, call your contact center, or tweet to you. Human beings love to be surprised. You won’t be sorry.

 

What Does An Influencer Look Like?

Today I strolled into my favorite local mom and pop coffee shop. As I waited for my coffee at the register I watched two mustache sporting police officers. I noticed how proud and tall they stood. I imagined what it must feel like to wear a police uniform and a rifle on the belt–to feel that powerful.

But I couldn’t help but feel the officer uniforms were from some kind of past historic world where easily identifiable uniforms communicated power and instilled fear (or a feeling of safety depending on context).

Today’s most powerful people, on the web at least, don’t don police uniforms. They are incognito and can quickly uproot your entire brand with one blog post. It’s guerilla warfare out there.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.-Thomas Edison

Go the extra mile. You never know if your customer uses a Montblanc or a BIC. And if they don’t use a Montblanc, their customers, friends and networks might. It’s big brother whether you like it or not. You never know who is watching or listening.

You’ve been warned-but it’s an opportunity to delight and shine.

Social Media Destroys the Assembly Line Mentality of Knowledge Work

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Do you remember this I Love Lucy episode? This episode “Job Switching” from Season 2 (May 30, 1952) features Lucy and Ethel who, in an effort to prove to their husbands that working from home is hard, take jobs in a chocolate factory and let the men manage the households. They get in a world of trouble with their boss when they cannot keep up with the work load flowing down the increasingly fast assembly line. It’s an adorable show. If you haven’t seen it watch the clip before reading on.

Why I Care About This Stuff

I mention this Lucy episode because I used to work for a company that was a knowledge worker factory-and I worked on the assembly line. Replace chocolate with content, and replace Lucy’s work station with a computer. Because the office was in New York City we were working as close as you would on an assembly line.

The company had very high customer and employee turnover. There was little focus on the quality of the customer experience or execution of the product. Costs were shaved at every opportunity.

The focus of the company was on customer creation so employees were tasked with building the global list of prospects. The company essentially assigned everyone to list research and had product developers, marketers and salespeople building lists on excel through cold-calling.

The recipients of these calls were generally senior level executives who would get up to 10 calls a day from the same company. Employees were measured on how many times they picked up the phone and how long they could keep it off the hook. The competitive environment was encouraged. Full, colorful and completely filled out excel were the coin of the realm.

Everyone Works in List Research

After employees left (or more often than not were fired) these lists were resurrected from the computers to be sucked dry. I saw many of my colleagues get fired without warning–they were asked to leave that day. It wasn’t a rare day where I would come in to work to see an empty computer work-station and never see Emily/Bob/John/Jack/Mario again.

While I am tempted to bank these stories in my memory vault and lock them there for another day I can’t not share. I believe social media will prevent companies from getting away with these non-worker friendly management practices. And it’s actually in their best interest-they just don’t know it yet!

I saw many young people come into this organization straight out of college wide-eyed and busy-tailed. That is until they realized this career in “business research” was actually much different from what was promised to them. It was a knowledge worker assembly line.

I won’t call it a “sweat shop,” but someone else did.

The Purpose of Fear

The older I get, the more I realize how much in our society is powered by fear. Our organizations are driven by fear, our purchasers are motivated by fear, our mainstream news is created to instill fear.

Do our silos still thrive because of fear?

While my inclination is to keep quiet, I choose to share my story because I see the change coming to business as a result of social media–I am delighted to be a part of this change.

I hope to change the lives of many human beings who just generally hate their jobs–being miserable at work is totally unnecessary.

Today the knowledge worker assembly line mentality is obsolete.

Social media will change business management, work flow and work design. It will change the idea of “work” as we now know it. It’s just a matter of time before people start taking risks, trying social, and sharing successes and failures.

I hope that soon the “ring of fire” is no longer something an employee has to jump through to get what they need, but rather limited to a Johnny Cash song.

Social media is uprooting established ideas about control. It’s also making  legacy systems, processes and transactions obsolete. Everyone who refuses to learn about leveraging social media will be in for a rude awakening.

And no I’m not trying to scare you-just clue you in to something really important.

What would happen to management if employees started sharing information, collaborating and blurring the lines between personal and professional?What’s the worst that can happen if we give up some control? You aren’t going to die…And what doesn’t kill you can only make you … what was that? “STRONGER.”

It’s time to pay attention to what is going on around us. And take action. Get yourself educated on social. Take some risks. Lose some control. It will feel better than you thought it would.

I am happy to kiss the silo and the ring of fire goodbye.