January-February, 2005

Employees creating company values? You're kidding!

Success is sweet. You and your colleagues and staff have worked hard to get where you are. Why not just relax and enjoy it?

Because sitting on your laurels can lead to a crippling lack of nimbleness, as IBM found out when the market shifted out from under it back in the 90s. Let's talk about what they're doing, and what you can learn from it about maintaining flexibility.

Flexibility means finding ways to adapt quickly. In the old days, HR people viewed gaps or short stints in your job history as highly suspect. Nowadays, no one thinks twice about a 6-month hole--whether you backpacked through Europe or took time off to fish with your dying grandmother. And working at multiple jobs even in a few years is commonplace. Companies have learned to accept new lifestyles; employees have learned to live them.

As a business owner, you know that when the market moves--as it inevitably does--you need to react quickly. Well, imagine this: IBM--the gold standard for blue-suited, rigid corporate approaches--almost went out of business when the Internet came along and mainframes were replaced wholesale with PC technology. They recovered, but their newest leader isn't stopping there. He says that flexibility is a reflection of company values.

Last summer, according to an article in the December issue of Harvard Business Review, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano invited every single employee in all locations in 160 countries to participate in a 3-day free and open online discussion about company values. Here's what happened:

• a day of complaints and criticisms, then


• energy shifted; employees focused on what they admired about IBM


• employees offered profound insights and practical suggestions


• result: IBM "got real" and revisioned its values

Since it's impossible to oversee every action of tens of thousands of bright professionals--nor would such watchdogging be likely to inspire them to greater accomplishment--Palmisano reasoned that the values statements they helped formulate would now serve employees as a guide when making their own decisions about work issues. Radical thinking maybe? True empowerment, definitely.

If a giant corporation can change the way it operates--a monster organization like IBM can morph out of a sense of entitlement and of smug satisfaction with itself--surely you can afford to experiment with letting employees help build the nimble, flexible, successful future of your company. If you don't already run this way, consider how much harder it is to grow when you hang tightly onto control.

Sincerely,
Barbara

At ReallyGoodFreelanceWriter.com lately:

• Appeared on a NEOSA panel of professional bloggers to introduce the idea of using blogging to grow your business--talk about a tool to empower your employees....Microsoft has 600 of them!


• Download a FREE copy of this article:
  "Blogging for Business: How to decide if it's right for your company"

Make the Most of Your Money. Gary Lewis, owner of Asset Design Center, contributes the surprising information that many of the wealthiest people in the world ($10 million and up) among other things, a) do not have a will or a trust, b) worry often about having enough money to support their lifestyle during retirement, and c) don't understand how to designate the charities they want to support--or apparently, even how to select their favorites. Read more about this PNC Bank Advisors study.

Q&A
Q. "Why is planning for one's estate so often left unattended?"
A. "People don't like to think about their own demise. It can be helpful if you think of an estate plan as a wonderful gift you give to your family--and to the charities or museums or institutions you have enjoyed and supported all your life. Careful, wise planning ensures that everyone you care about receives as much benefit as possible."
~ Gary Lewis, The Lewis Marketing Report Email Gary
Read more about Asset Design Center