Hi there Frank!
Hi Francois, I hope you are well rested and ready for 2011.
Oh yes! I’m freshly inspired and I can feel I will be really creative this year.
So what are your new year’s resolutions?
I don’t have any.
Really? Didn’t you look back at 2010 and think about the things you have accomplished and the things you still want to accomplish?
If I do that only once a year I’ll get nowhere. I check my coordinates at least once a month.
Coordinates?
Yes. Like when you are using a GPS to reach a destination… there are sets of coordinates telling you that you are on the right track. That makes it easy to know if you are off course. As I said, if I have to do this once a year I’ll be off the map completely.
*Laughter*
OK I get it. Nice segway so by the way… We are going to be chatting about love and there are basically two tracks you can be on: on the path of love or off it - even in business.
You mean you are either in love or out of love?
Ah, no. You can be in love and not on the path of love… we’ll get there. Let’s talk about business first.
Sorry, I don’t mix business with love!
Sure, most people don’t. But there may be a way to do business with a mindset of abundance.
Whoa, Frank. You just jumped from love to abundance!
Yep, I did. Have you ever noticed how people who are deeply in love lacks nothing. The world is beautiful, they are happy with everything, especially their beloved. They are carefree, lost in the raptures of the moment. And it seems that this bliss will last for ever, nothing can worry them.
I’ve been there. And you want people to feel like that about business!?
Why not? Haven’t you noticed that the really successful people - those that inspire us to be better at what we do for our customers - are passionate.
Ooh, you are playing with words, Frank.
Of course I am. Haven’t you noticed that people who are passionate about what they do make it seem effortless, like playing? If they experience a problem, an abundance of solutions seems to be at hand at the same instant the problem appeared… There are always opportunities, business booms even in ‘bad times’. Life is rich and beautiful!
OK mister inspiration, lets get back to reality. For business to do well you have to be able to exceed customers’ expectations most of the time. As a matter of fact, it is nowadays an expectation that expectations must be exceeded.
That is one reality, yes.
There’s more… Say I do business with you and we agree that I will deliver ‘20’. My obligation is to deliver at least 20 and your expectation will be met, but you may not be happy. If I deliver 19.99, I have not met your expectation. My product or service is rated as poor. If I deliver 25 for the same price I barely exceed expectations – you will be ‘satisfied’. If I deliver 30 for the same price, three days before the deadline and even in places where other people will not go, then I’ve exceeded expectations significantly and I am rated as a provider of excellent services or products… or entertainment. You are ‘delighted’.
Hmmm-
And there is more. The same principle is used to judge the contribution of employees. I meet your expectations, I get my salary. I don’t meet them, I get fired in all the legally direct and indirect ways acceptable in today’s business world. I exceed expectations (AKA performance objectives or targets, but some expectations may be more social and psychological), I get quicker advancement, more pay, awards, rewards, bonuses, recognition… call it want you want. I call them carrots. Sticks and carrots – that is the hard reality of business.
Can I have a turn now?
Sure.
It looks like you are really passionate about that picture as the reality of business today, but I sense an undercurrent.
You sense correctly. I don’t like it!
Do you have any ideas about an alternative way to do business?
Well, yes. I think Macgregor’s Theory Y type of business is far more rewarding on an intrinsic level.
Theory Y? What is that?
It is a mindset – the belief that people like work, enjoy work and are challenged by it.
As opposed to not liking work, being intrinsically lazy and needing to be forced or manipulated to work?
Yep. That is Theory X type workplaces. And carrots and sticks are ways to ‘persuade’ people to produce. Theory X managers believe employees are somewhat stupid or gullible and would avoid responsibility at every opportunity they get.
I see. Go on.
Theory Y says that work is as naturally enjoyable as recreation and rest. If an organisation’s objectives are understood well and the environment encourages creativity and ingenuity, working people will be self-directed. They are committed to achieve those objectives when they are recognized for contributing to the business with their own growth. Working people typically seek responsibility and are able to handle it in an environment which encourages creativity and ingenuity.
Nice! That kind of business is the abundance generators I am talking about. – What is wrong, Francois?
Most business I am exposed to seems to be on the X track!
That may be so. There are businesses that have made the switch to Theory Y thinking, if you know where to look.
How did they do that?
Well, that answer will take more than a couple of our conversations to put to bed. I have a couple of Ideas, though… starting with the Love Guru.
There you go again- mixing love with business…
Let me leave you in suspense until next time. Then we can chat about how Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Mastery of Love can be applied to all relationships, including those between employer and employee and client and business.
I am looking forward to that.
Alright, now for some rest and recreation – it was a long day. Please bring your inspiration with you again next time.
