Year: 2010

Undercover Boss Australia highlights power of listening

What if those in power could be ‘everyman’ for a day? The premise is simple and rooted in

Listening

Listening is a key leadership skill

dramatic tradition. In Greek myth, Zeus would disguise himself as a beggar in order to reward the kind and punish the cruel. In Shakespeare’s Henry V the king becomes a common soldier the night before battle. The latest incarnation of this idea is Undercover Boss, in which the head of a company takes on a series of frontline roles disguised as a new employee in order to discover first hand the customer and employee experience.

The format, created by ex-BBC documentary-maker Stephen Lambert, has run successfully in the UK, the US and is now commencing in other countries, including Australia. The popular US version has also been criticised for the PR element –  trying to provide a human face to CEOs, a group ‘suffering’ from poor public image after some of the executive excesses before – and during – the economic crises of 2008 and 2009.

Spin aside, the series shows that effective two-way communication in organisations improves engagement and leads to better business outcomes.

The newest spin-off in the franchise, Undercover Boss Australia kicked off Monday on Ten with Domino’s Pizza Enterprises CEO, Don Meij taking on a range of frontline jobs across the business he has been with for over 20 years, including delivery driver, human billboard and pizza maker.

“Australian workers are feeling the pain, working harder and longer. Are workers really asking ‘what about me?’” was the question posed in the opening sequence. The opening aside, on screen, Meij quickly demonstrated an authentic leadership style and openness in his interactions with his leadership team.

Since hearing of the Australian version, I have wondered how well the format would translate for Australia as there are a number of cultural differences that have seen other reality formats crash and burn here. The Aussie bullshit detector is particularly acute and ‘ra-ra’ sessions are justifiably viewed skeptically.

Also, Australian’s are not always quick to tell deeply personal stories. This was demonstrated in one of the more awkward exchanges in the first episode, where Meij sought to draw out the story of one of his young workers. This was the show’s weakest moment, but  is a central element of the ‘find it and fix it’ formula used by the American version.

The biggest problem with the overseas versions is in the ‘reveal’ and ‘reward’ section of the show. There have been many cases where the solutions are one-off donations for the individuals, as if we have slipped into Secret Millionaire, the other creation from Studio Lambert. This makes for great ‘tissues’ television for viewers, but from a business perspective, many of these solutions feel superficial and unsustainable – band-aid solutions that do nothing to address the root causes of the issues in the business, and that could (or would) not be replicated across a workforce of thousands.

However, it is here that Meij demonstrated some great authentic leadership. He owned issues where he saw the business needing to support the stores more effectively.  And although granting a number of personal rewards, these were clearly contexted as recognition for the efforts and commitments of the employees.

As he spoke to his employees he appeared humble, open and genuine in reflecting his experience of his time with them, their hopes and commitments, at one point saying “You’re doing an amazing job and I wanted to acknowledge that.” Recognising people not only for their achievements but also acknowledging their ambitions is a powerful approach.

Undercover Boss Australia has the ingredients: the implied drama of being ‘undercover’, the human interest stories of the employees, the leaders who learn about themselves in the process, the ‘reveal’ and the ‘reward’. And for leaders, some great lessons in the power of listening. In the words of one of the participants “Every CEO should get back down to earth level and see what we see every day.”

How well do you listen to your business?
Regardless of the size of your business, a real awareness of the operations and the people within your organisation is essential. The good news is it doesn’t always require glasses and a fake beard. Here are three ways to get closer to employees immediately. They key is to provide opportunities for the leader to listen. And if at first the issues raised seem unimportant, that is a failing of the culture and leadership, not of the employees. The quality of discussions will change over time.

  • Walk around. If you are visiting an interstate office, spend time in the office while people are doing their jobs. Show genuine interest. Practice deep listening. Ask open questions.
  • Open discussions. Whether sharing a sandwich and a coffee, or just getting out from behind desks and talking, small group discussions (8 is a great number) can be an effective way of increasing open feedback.
  • The CEO hotline. Can any employee in your business phone or email the boss if they need to? The first step might be to have a set time each week or month when employees can ring and discuss anything about the business they feel the need to talk about.

Don’t think that one shared sandwich will change your culture, but a sustained approach to talking with small groups of employees provides leaders an opportunity to listen to what is happening and speak openly about the business.

Undercover Boss Australia screens 8.30pm Mondays on Ten. Next week, Veolia Environmental Services.

Unmanaged change or change management?

Noel Turnbull, Adjunct Professor media and communications at RMIT wrote yesterday that “One of the PR industry’s most problematic activities is dreaming up justifications for toxic workplace practices imposed by psychopathic managers” in Crikey.

While an interesting view of poor change management, the piece did not cover the fact that unmanaged change can be a fate far worse.

My response:

To begin, my declaration of interest: I have a foot in both the communication and the change management camps. I have worked in organisations that have undergone many ‘changes’, some managed well, some ‘unmanaged’, some poor.

It is a little disingenuous to only speak about the phrase “change management” as a euphemism for the type of poor practice outlined (in an excellent, flawed article). Dismissing all aspects of managing change does not serve those impacted by poor change management.

There are any number of factors that can lead an organisation – private or public – to need to ‘change’. These factors can be legislative, economic, environmental. And the impact of these factors do require management. Change is not something to be spun. It is something to be worked through, and does require ‘management’.

The ‘change’ industry is a substantial one. Like any industry there will be a range of views on effective, responsible practice. ‘Change’ is stressful. The human response to change is a well-studied area (psychology, medically, industrially, etc). Considering the degree of human impact/cost from poorly or unmanaged organisational change (such as the examples  described), it is surprising there is little regulation.

authoirised personnel only

Change - an unregulated field

Anyone can be a ‘change manager’, and the boundaries between HR, business improvement, communication, PR get blurred.  A PR-only approach to change management is rarely successful. Communication is never an effective substitute for strategy – that is a whole other topic ;).

It is an organisation’s leaders and managers who are ultimately accountable. Organisations (and practitioners) do have a responsibility to ‘manage change’ in a responsible way.  There are a substantial number of good practitioners across a range of disciplines who are committed to this field, to improving the outcomes for people and organisations, who understand the principles of involvement and participatory management and who seek to educate the leaders who ultimately make the decisions about how a change is managed.

What do you think?

Why I hate like

I hate like. ‘Like’ is such a neutral term, and one that has, like, been rendered, like, meaningless through over- and misuse.

This is not the first piece written about this dilemma. Others have proposed the need for a hate button, pointed out the technical risks of liking, and bemoaned the facebookification of the web. (I have even liked some of these posts).

My beef is that ‘Like’ is such an inadequate term for such a range of networked ideas.

The social currency of opinion, user recommendation, and retweeting is actively defining agendas from product development, citizen journalism drives political change and the dot org revolution sees millions of people engaged in issues they may never have had the chance to be exposed to a decade ago thanks to online campaigns.
I propose that we need some new categories to cover this range of human behaviour online.

Granted, there are other ways to share discoveries: you can stumble, dig,blip, proclaim you’ve read it, or choose from a multitude of recommendation tools.

Because Facebook is the mainstream, has some very simple integration with web content and as such, people may like things by default. But is it right to ‘like’ a news story that is about something abhorrent? It is the implied approval bestowed by ‘liking” something that I am challenging.

So, come on facebook, time to move from the artificial endorsement model and start introducing a broader range of thinking:

Where are the buttons for the following?

‘I really disagree with this, but need to draw it to the attention of a wide audience’
‘I don’t like this but linking to it will make me cool/popular/show up in a new group’
‘Ephemeral surfing distraction’
‘Freakin awesome’
‘It’s ok…’
‘interesting’
‘useful’
‘important’
‘I have already seen this so please stop sending it to me/recommending/sharing’
‘Tickled me’
‘Don’t darken my browser again’

Any other suggestions?

Please ‘like’ this post.

Meaning Business site updated through WordPress

A communication business needs a simple, clear website. After testing a range of CMS and website management tools, the new Meaning Business site in WordPress is live.