All we need is love

Day 10 (Thursday 10th December 2015)

10 past 10. In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch 
is approximately 10:10. The reason for this is to "frame" the logo of the watch maker.
The hands at that number cause the eyes to look right at the logo! 
contributed by Shaun Hussey, Graphic Designer

This inspirational post was written by respected Marketing guru and wit Alan Gilmour. Alan has recently started a new role as the Head of Acquisition and Retention for Police Mutual. Alan and I should have crossed paths at Lloyds TSB (as he was Head of Marketing at the time when the group acquired a business I co-founded). However, we only met face-to-face when he became responsible for the high profile project of establishing Identity Cards for the UK's Passport Office. He is highly engaging company and those I know who have worked with him describe him as an inspirational, entertaining and remarkable leader. You can follow Alan on Twitter (his handle is @alan_gilmour) or read his (sporadic) personal blogging. 

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You don't have to shine in a flashy and ostentatious manner to be a high flier.

Earlier this year Burt Shavitz died.

Burt, a bearded, free-spirited, hippy, who was 80 at his death, turned his affinity for nature and beekeeping into the multi-million dollar personal care products company, ‘Burt’s Bees’.

A man of deep principle who turned his back on the company he created and walked away with virtually nothing. And went back to the bees he loved.

Yet the company he created lives on and describes itself on its website as ‘basically a bunch of hands-on, tree-hugging, greased elbow do-gooders. It's kind of what makes our company special. We think the bees would agree.’

Burt would have approved.

And Burt’s story begs the question - Why is that ex hippies have built and run some of the world’s best brands?

Think about it

Michael Eavis and the Glastonbury Festival.

Richard Branson and Virgin.

Anita Roddick and Body Shop.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield and their eponymous ice cream.

Yvon Choinard and Patagonia.

And the biggest hippie and biggest Hippie Brand of them all, Steve Jobs and Apple.

The list goes on.

And if some of these companies were not exactly begat by the Hippie era, their founders certainly betray Hippie-esque tendencies.

But what is it about the Hippie culture that it has spawned such a litany of great brands?

It is because they have a cause.

A clear mission and vision statement that transcends making money or being first in our chosen market or improving shareholder returns. Or some other corporate guff.

They want to change the world for those they serve, those they work with.

For us a brand must have a cause.  A cause that inspires and motivates all who work for the brand, all who buy the brand. A cause rooted in a brand truth.

Brands do not necessarily need to change the world. But all brands must have a belief in what they are doing, why they are doing it, who they are doing it for, where they want to be.

The more succinct, the more inspiring, the more emotional, the better the brand.

Maybe Hippie Brands are just better at doing this.

At building a vision and a mission for the brand that resonates, that is distinctive, that is believable. Better at creating a cause for their brand.

And if you want to see what great looks like in this context, here is one example:

‘Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis’ (Patagonia)

But no matter the words on the paper all will come to naught if your brand and its people cannot live and breathe the brand, strive for the cause. It all comes down to brand execution.

Great brands, hippie or not, not only define what they stand for and what they want to achieve, but can execute against this with great consistency and great rigour through the organisation and across all touch-points. Including those who work for the brand.

This is how you build a brilliant brand and soar.

It is not about being a hippie.

It is about defining and being true to an inspiring, emotional and motivating brand cause.

We can all do that.

The "Hippy Hippy Shakes" - sung by the Swinging Blue Jeans

Wizard Oscar and his Corporate Revelations - Day 6

Day 6

6 impossible things - Quote From Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll: 

"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said 'one can't believe impossible things.'

'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, 

I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've 

believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 

Illustration of Alice helping the White Queen by John Tenniel for 1871 publication

Today is the the feast of Saint Nicholas (in many countries the day when "Santa Claus" (or St. Nick) brings treats to good children), so it seems appropriate for us to have it as a day for a story. As those of you who have read This Time It's Personnel will know, as a child, Annette Hill was told tales by her father about Wizard Oscar and his friends. Annette is continuing the family tradition, but with a workplace twist. When not spinning fairy tales, Annette works as an HR Director and OD and L&D expert for a Community Rehabilitation Company in the West Country of the UK. You can follow her on Twitter via @familyhrguru or read her blog.

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As those of you who have read the books and seen the films of recent popular stories for children and young people must all know by now, many wizards, witches and other magical friends are immortal, and often reinvent themselves in new centuries, settings and societies. So here is a modern day story featuring Wizard Oscar and his associates in a modern, corporate world and the challenges they face. As this is an Advent blog, expect plenty of artistic licence, a large dose of sweeping generalisations and a happy ending with a moral, of course!

First of all, let us visit the entries for the current incarnations of the original characters on the website of Widgets.com - Home Page, About Us:

The Lord of the Land

Chief Executive Officer

Education and background: Lord founded Widgets Ltd 25 years ago and was responsible for its rapid growth. 5 years ago Widgets.com took over and retained Lord as CEO. Lord is married with 3 grown up children, and he enjoys golf and fly-fishing.

*Magical powers: None, but knighted for his services to Global widget manufacture economies. 

Wizard Oscar

HR Director

Education and background: Oscar joined the top team 6 months ago, following a successful career with Magic Circle Aggregates and other constructive industries. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Positive Demystification, Oscar is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion. When not busy writing his popular blog, Wizarding Wise Words, Oscar enjoys caving.

*Magical powers: A powerful, though forgetful wizard, even Oscar is sometimes surprised by what he is capable of.

The Blue Dog.

Intern.

Education and background: First class honours degree from Kennelclub University.

*Magical powers: Chameleon (mainly turning blue). Easily influenced, can be led to do good magical deeds

Caw Caw, the Crow

HR Business Partner

Education and background: Caw Caw has been with the company for 7 years. She joined upon completing her degree in Psychic Wellbeing, starting as a payroll administrator. She completed her Chartered Institute of Practical Dedication within 3 years of joining and has project managed a number of outsourcing initiatives. Single, Caw Caw is a very active volunteer and Board trustee at Local Food bank.

*Magical powers: Eyes in the back of her head. Extracts the wood from the trees. 

Bad Boss of the Circus

Director of Operations

Education and background: Bad Boss has been with the organisation for 18 months, joining after 2 years at Quite Large Outsourcing Company. He commenced his career in Well Known Management Consultancy, on their Hard To Get Into Graduate Scheme. Soon after winning their Trainee of the Year prize, he was snapped up by Even Better Known Management Consultancy, where he was a key player in developing the Second Latest Management Fad for Business Modernisation, and subsequently enjoyed a swift rise to Partner. Bad Boss is married with no children. He and his wife enjoy fringe opera and extreme snowboarding. He has a degree in Strategic Micromanagement.

*Magical Powers: Getting a quart out of a pint pot. Passing off others’ hard work as his own. Master of disguise.

* Magical web sub page, viewable only by those whose spells procured the App ESP v7.7.7 .

The remaining member of the original tales, Wizard Willow Wand, has remained invisible much of the time, still lives by rivers and lakes (for maximum psychological wellness) and works as a successful, unobtrusive executive coach. He is currently coaching Wizard Oscar.

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Mid morning Monday, and Wizard Oscar was feeling rather uneasy. He had just finished reading the anonymised results of the Widgets.com Employee Satisfaction Survey he had commissioned at the behest of the CEO as an early priority. The results compared very poorly against the results of the same survey from 3 years ago.

The CEO, Lord of the Land, was leaving a corporate golf tournament a day early later that week to receive Oscar’s report and recommendations. He had specifically requested that his HR Director fully involve the Director of Operations, Bad Boss, so impressed was he with the theory of the Second Latest Management Fad for Business Modernisation, which Bad Boss had rolled out immediately upon his arrival. Needless to say the marketing for this approach made many promises guaranteeing high levels of Employee Engagement as an outcome.

Oscar knew that his meeting with Bad Boss was going to need careful planning and handing. There was something niggling him about this individual, but being a little forgetful, and having lived through several adventures, not to mention a couple of centuries and settings, since the dark days of the Circus, he could not quite put his finger on this.

Luckily, that afternoon, Oscar was due to meet his coach, Wizard Willow Wand.

Oscar sighed; although he always found these meetings incredibly useful, the meeting was taking place off site by a remote, peaceful lake, as usual. 6 months in, with the honeymoon period definitely over, Oscar also had many other urgent matters to attend to, and he could well have done without additional time out of his day to travel to and from the meeting with Willow Wand.

After seeing to tonnes of ‘urgent’ e-mails and meeting with Caw Caw to discuss the poor performance of contract for the latest employee service outsourced under the Second Latest Management Fad for Business Modernisation, Oscar set off with a heavy heart. He missed the days when magic could be practiced openly and he could simply fly from his cave to wherever he needed to be. In fact, retreating to his cave seemed quite attractive right now.

At the discreet and peaceful location, Oscar sat down by a shimmering silver birch to wait for Willow Wand to appear. He had no doubt that his old friend and mentor was already there, remaining furiously invisible, thus forcing Oscar to sit still, breathe deeply and take in the beautiful surroundings.

Silver birch by a lake, painting by Peter Symonds

He thought about whom, within the company, he knew or believed to be magical. Could any of them help him in planning and implementing a strategy?

Lord of the Land? He didn’t think so. In fact Oscar strongly suspected him to be a direct descendant of the old Lord, who used to summon him regularly to his castle, and stare at the empty space Oscar left behind when he flew back to his cave on one of the Lord’s finest armchairs. He always returned the empty chair, leaving the old Lord of the Land to wonder if the encounter actually happened at all? Might he even have thought up the answer to the Kingdom’s troubles for himself?

Caw Caw. He knew her to be magical and they had worked together many times over the centuries. She was often his eyes and ears, and she had in fact alerted her old boss to this HR Director opportunity at Widgets.com. The symptoms of a disaffected workforce and absentee CEO were not that different, he reflected, to some of the problems that arose in the royal courts he had advised in the old days.

Crow, woodcut, by Lisa Brawn

The Blue Dog. He had given a dog magical powers to turn blue and to do good deeds in the past. This had been very effective in thwarting the Bad Boss of the Circus and both the Blue Dog and the wild animals had been successfully released back to their rightful environments as a result.

Just then, Wizard Willow Wand appeared by his side, enigmatically smiling – he had of course been present all along. He could see that following some enforced quiet time, his friend was already working through some ideas, applying previous experiences and ideas to the current situation.

Paths to a new future
Willow arches at Kew Gardens by @WaterWillows

I won’t go into the coaching session in detail (this is after all a blog not a novel), other than to say that Willow Wand provided structure, space, thinking time, asked incisive and insightful questions and listened actively. By the end of their meeting, Oscar had started to devise a plan. He knew that the kind of change he needed to influence could not happen overnight. The thought that kept evading him had appeared. Of course! He also knew Bad Boss from the old days. He should have recognised those ‘dodgy’ magical powers, but Bad Boss, a master of disguise, had moved around and reinvented himself many, many times more often that his magical counterparts. He actually looked quite urbane and sophisticated these days.

Wizard Oscar was going to have to dig deep into his repertoire of skills and persuasion to persuade the CEO that maybe there was a reason why the Second Latest Management Fad for Business Modernisation, was, well, the second latest fad…

Before that he had a structured meeting to plan with Big Boss, but he knew that he had Caw Caw to support him in gathering all of the pertinent facts (and big data) and that the chameleon qualities of the Blue Dog could be used to very good positive effect indeed, with the right leadership, which he intended to provide.

He thought carefully on the way home about how he was going to deploy magic in the current world, where obvious magic is frowned upon and viewed with suspicion and fear. Then he had a further revelation… Everything he needed to do was achievable without actual magic spells. Unless of course, you believe

Wisdom,

Integrity,

Zeal,

Authenticity,

Realism and

Dedication, not to mention

Openness,

Sincerity,

Care,

Appropriateness and

Rapport building

to be magical qualities… 

On the right path

Footnote

Wizard Oscar and friends are characters invented by my dad when I was very small. I described his storytelling and other inspirational qualities in a blog published recently in the book of HR blogs, This Time It’s Personnel, Humane Resourced 2, available on Amazon kindle.

Catching Stars

We should be more careful about the ways in which we utilise Helium, and probably not waste it in frivolous party balloons when we need it to cool the large magnets in medical MRI scanners, according to Tom Welton, a professor of sustainable chemistry at Imperial College in London.  There is a finite supply of Helium on earth and it is swiftly running out (or floating away to be more accurate as, being lighter than air, once it is released it drifts upwards and into space) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19676639 .  One could argue that we should be equally careful with top talent in our organisations – there are a finite number of star performers and, if we aren’t careful, it is easy for them to drift away either emotionally or literally by moving to another organisation.  In these tough economic times, few businesses have the budget to undertake significant recruitment and “throw bodies at a problem”, indeed many organisations are reporting that they are trying to do more with less.  How can we ensure that we keep our stars engaged and striving to enable sustainable business growth and success?

Engagement is currently a hot topic in HR and broader business circles.  There are numerous articles (both on and offline) extolling the importance of having engaged employees and highlighting the direct correlation between employee engagement, customer satisfaction, business performance and overall results.  Rather worryingly for the businesses concerned, a recent Towers Watson survey seems to show that employee engagement is falling http://www.towerswatson.com/research/7177  , despite managers encouraging their reports to respond.

 

Another often stated fact is that an employee’s relationship with their direct manager has a significant impact on their personal engagement levels.  Most employees’ experience of management and leadership at work is through their day-to-day manager who oversees what they do and when and how they do it – moment-to-moment interactions impact how the employee feels about their boss and therefore the organisation for which they work.  As a result, managers are encouraged to:

• make time for direct reports;
• discuss their performance and what’s expected of them;
• say “thank you”; and (perhaps)
• take them out for a drink or meal to make them feel valued. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I am strongly in favour of managers making an effort, but interactions need to be meaningful – an employee feeling trapped in a meeting they don’t enjoy or want to attend, where they believe that the other person with them is “going through the motions”, not actually listening and/or where there is no genuine connection or understanding, can result in good employees becoming disengaged and even lead to subversive conversations with others (which could have broader repercussions on engagement and morale).  Managers are crucial within the work environment and the little things do count – managers should:

• show appreciation for efforts made by their team to achieve results;
• make sure that they don’t keep their reports waiting (doing so risks making people feel that they are not important or valued, especially if a tardy manager is noticeably punctual for meetings with their own superiors);
• be responsive in a timely and appropriate manner (no matter how well researched or crafted the response, an emailed reply over a fortnight after a simple request is made is probably too late to be pertinent); and
• lend an ear, show genuine interest and give people consideration and/or support when they need it.

 

Although the above listed approaches can improve employee relations and hence foster engagement, they are unlikely to provide sufficient long-term, sustainable levels of morale building nor to encourage a unified drive across the workforce to realise and exceed objectives.  Increasingly people want to feel proud of what they do and where they work.  To achieve this, employees need to believe that the people they work for are genuine with a real sense of purpose behind what they do.  This can be on a personal level, such as an appreciation that they and the organisation have them on a career path (as opposed to just doing a day job) or it can be feeling that they are part of a bigger plan and that their values are aligned with the vision and ethics of the business.

 

Never mind Kate Moss’s vain boast that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” - I know firsthand that the best feeling in the world is achieving something you feel proud of with other like-minded people.  Organisations with the highest engagement scores are ones where empowered employees, united with concurring colleagues, work in an environment that inspires them and where they are passionate about attaining shared goals.  The power of having a collective common vision of what could and should be done can be extraordinary. I have co-founded a couple of highly successful businesses, one of which recently held a well-attended a reunion to celebrate a decade since its inception.  Without exception all of us nostalgic alumni who attended said that it had been “the best place we had ever worked at”.  When we analysed why, we agreed that it was because of the shared

• sense of pride,
• ownership,
• knowledge of what each of us was doing to enable the bigger plan to be achieved. 

We worked hard (really hard at times), but we knew why and we were proud of what we were doing - we each felt part of a team that were changing the world and building a better future.  How great is that?  It will make an inspiring tale to tell the grandchildren (when/if I have some and I have finally slowed down a bit).

 

Humans have traditionally used stories to raise awareness and spread ideas and/or values, as well as to engender a sense of community amongst groups of people.  Increasingly within the business environment we are telling stories to engender a sense of pride in our organisations and to showcase what we and colleagues have achieved.  Many companies now host regular awards for the people who are “stars in our eyes”, “helpful heroes” and “Gems” who Go the Extra Mile.  The tales of their accomplishments are publicised, often videoed and shared.  Stories are potent – they help us learn; we use them from an early age as a lens through which to interpret the world.  Powerful concepts are depicted in traditional fairy tales, including good and evil, the basis of human relationships and the commercial ways of the world.  Many universals and scientifically grounded truths can be found in tales and legends (for example, there are sound psychological and evolutionary reasons as to why step mothers are often “wicked” and, as the disappearance of Megan Stammers and her married maths teacher Jeremy Forrest perhaps testifies – one should never underestimate the power of a pretty face). 

 

Amongst the most influential Western fairy stories are the Grimms’ Fairy Tales which are celebrating the 200^th anniversary since their first publication.  (You might be interested to know that The Brothers Grimm’s book “Children’s’ and Household Tales” is the second best-selling book in the German language after the Bible.) 



Original 1812 Frontispiece



Many of us have been delighted by these traditional fairy tales, when told to us as children – admittedly Disney has given us sanitised versions of Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel, as compared to the originals published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, but, regardless of the version, the main strands of the stories are familiar to many of us and have provided swathes of society around the globe with a shared culture and outlook.  Leading global authors, such as Sir Terry Pratchett, Angela Carter and Philip Pullman, admit to drawing upon familiar stories, such as those compiled by the Grimm brothers, using them a familiar shortcut to aid comprehension in their own tales.  Stories can shed light on the past as well as potentially illuminating a path for our futures and they are often well founded.  Scientists have found genetic and psychological reasons for why step mothers are often wicked and evolutionary competition encourages tricksters.  I like the fact that similar stories are often replicated across cultures, for example, many societies have tales about a blacksmith with magical powers (he also is often handicapped) and accounts of a “Great Flood”. 

 

As an aside (whilst on the subject of “Great Floods”) - also in the news this week is the fact that scientists have reviewed almost two decades of satellite data to create a new map that depicts changes and trends in sea levels.  In general, the oceans are rising (by an average of 3mm per annum), but it is a complex picture with significant regional differences (such as an average rise of 10mm around the Philippines) and more information is needed before definite conclusions can be drawn.

 

As Richard Ward the Chief Executive of Lloyds of London (the heart of the global insurance market), commented on the radio this morning, we have seen a significant change in weather patterns over the past fifteen years.  We are in a state of change and flux.

Monmouth Flood 1607

How often do organisations reassess what drives employees?  Like those coping with sea levels and climate, businesses are experiencing significant challenges within a changeable environment and this impacts their people.  I suspect that one of the reasons why traditional surveys are showing a marked decline in employee engagement is because we are no longer asking the right questions.  We need to make pertinent enquiries that strike a chord with the respondents.  As the world changes, so do individuals’ expectations and motivations; what was right a decade ago may not be so apt now.  Increasingly people want to know not just what they should do, but how they should do it and why.  Integrity matters, values are required to ensure that value can be made and sustained. Enough meaningless hot air!  We need to decide between the merits of projects and aspirations (in other words to choose between our own forms of balloons or scanners) and spread the word to ensure that what we do appeals to those we require to work with us to create the future.  You need a good and true story to attract, inspire and retain stars.