Tonight I will do something I haven’t done in more than 25 years: perform in a stage musical. It’s opening night of my son’s high school production of “Fiddler on the Roof”, the story of a Jewish family in Tsarist Russia. My son has been honored with the lead role of Tevye, a dairyman, who knows something about Contented Cows, and who’s getting some hard lessons in adapting to change. The cast includes not only students, but faculty, alumni, and parents, including my wife and me, who are background villagers.

In the opening number, “Tradition”, Tevye tells the audience of the struggles of living in their challenging environment, and asks, under such difficult conditions, “How do we keep our balance? That, I can tell you in one word: Tradition!” Without tradition, he says, their lives would be as shaky as a Fiddler on the Roof.

While it pales greatly in comparison to the life-and-death struggles of Tevye’s people a century ago, the modern workplace can be about as shaky as a rooftop fiddler as well. So, how do you keep your balance? Tradition can help.

Even though we’re all probably over-connected electronically these days, most people are under-connected to the people, mission, customers, values, and yes, traditions of the place they spend 8+ hours a day working. And yet, with all the changes in the workplace over the last decade or so, among the things that have not changed, is people’s need for connectedness.

Traditions connect us to the past, a place where, as long as we don’t dwell there too long, we can find some useful elements for success. They also help create some of the best of the future. Some thoughts on tradition at your workplace:

• Don’t underestimate the value of tradition. People need something they can count on. Today’s workplace doesn’t offer much in that department.
• Don’t assume that you, as the manager, know what traditions are important to the people you work with, and which ones aren’t. Ask. Observe. Listen.
• Traditions that connect somehow to your organization’s mission serve lots of purposes: they’re a visible manifestation of the mission, and as such, are easier to sell to those who need to be sold.
• Encourage traditions that connect people together, rather than those that separate and divide them. The Executive Washroom is a relic of a tradition that doesn’t do anybody much good, including the executives. An annual celebration of the year’s good work, among people who actually know each other (as opposed to a mass gathering of everyone who happens to be on the payroll) can be a good tradition that strengthens the bonds necessary to do good work.
• In an interview in our first book, Contented Cows Give Better Milk, Betty Kahn, who was at the time, head of Communications at Crate and Barrel, put it beautifully when she told me “We do a lot of group eating.” There’s something about breaking bread (or at least a few coffee mugs) together that binds our souls. And at the risk of sounding all new age here, bound souls do better work than do unbound ones.
• Sometime in the next week, consider sunsetting a tradition that doesn’t help people, and therefore the business.
• Wanna leave a valuable mark on your organization? One that endures long after your physical tenure? Start a new practice that fortifies the connections among people, and between people and their work. Don’t force it, but if the practice fills a need, it could become, over time, a tradition, and one of your most important legacies.

This week I was going through old stuff I had saved on my computer (somebody told me I should do that in the spring, and, at long last, it looks like spring may have finally come to Florida.) One of the more interesting finds was a list of the “Top Ten Workplace Trends of 2006″, as identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

To be honest, they hit the nail on the proverbial head with much of their prognostication (with a few notable, and glaring exceptions). And yet, four years later, what hits me right between the eyes is the clear fact that the list was written with absolutely no foreknowledge of the economic cataclysm that was lurking just off the calendar, and that came ashore just two short years later.

Here’s the list:

1. Rising health care costs.

2. Increased use of outsourcing (offshoring) of jobs to other countries.

3. Threat of increased healthcare/medical costs on the economic competitiveness of the United States.

4. Increased demand for work/life balance.

5. Retirement of large numbers of baby boomers around the same time.

6. New attitudes toward aging and retirement as baby boomers reach retirement age.

7. Rise in the number of people without health insurance.

8. Increase in identity theft.

9. Work intensification as employers try to increase productivity with fewer employees.

10. Vulnerability.

OK – right off the bat, we’ve got 3 of the 10 trends dealing with healthcare. And they were right on target with all 3. The game changed last week. Whether for better or worse remains to be seen. But there’s no question that they were right on this one. That healthcare would become, to paraphrase Joe Biden, a “big deal”.

But look at all the stuff about retiring baby boomers. What retiring baby boomers? Of course, back in blissful ‘06, we didn’t know (though maybe we should have?) that our 401(k)’s were headed for shriveldom, and that the unemployment rate was gonna be up there where our 401(k) returns used to be…in the good old days.

I thought it interesting that the list included the two seemingly oxymoronic trends of work intensification and increased demand for work/life balance. The battle rages on, but work intensification is winning. The balance thing has taken a back seat to being lucky enough to have work in the first place. Sad, but true.

But in addition to the economic meltdown and complete flip-flop in the labor supply and demand relationship, here’s what else the ‘06 list missed, and in a big way:

• The disintegration (well-earned) of trust in leaders (at work and elsewhere).
• Continued and growing dis-connectedness between workers and the institutions they “appear” to be working for. People simply don’t identify with their “employer” to the degree they once did. Maybe with their profession, their career; but not their employer.
• Continued and growing need for connectedness to something, as manifested by the whole social media phenomenon.
• The coming (and now already here) dearth in leadership development efforts by employers, in large part due to the unforeseen recession.

These trends, and others, help form the basis for the new book we’re working on, along with our friend and colleague Meredith Kimbell, entitled Rebooting Leadership. Look for it this summer.

Meanwhile, what trends do you foresee in the workplace in the next, say, five years? Leave us a comment with at least two serious workplace trends that you see, or expect to see, and we’ll put you on a list to receive a free copy of Rebooting Leadership when it comes out.

Thanks!

In a post on January 13, we wrote about the epidemic of worker dissatisfaction in the US, as reported in a Conference Board study. In that post, we offered some initial thoughts on why workers are so unhappy these days, why it matters, and what to do about it. The first two reasons we gave were:

1. Workers have a diminished sense of meaningfulness in their jobs.
2. One word: micromanagement.

Here are 4 more reasons (with some suggested solutions), and a concluding thought:

Undifferentiated rewards: As companies have shrunk their merit budgets and bonuses, AND as the stock market is down for an entire DECADE (thus reducing the value of option grants), we have experienced tremendous reward destruction and compression in which the distinction between “stars” and “slugs” (Bill’s terms) has become negligible. Thus, we’ve experienced a drop in satisfaction that touches all, including our best performing people.

What to do: When you see good performance, reward it. Then and there. Start with “Thank You.” Then, find a way, and a big enough way to get the person’s attention. Rather than adding to fixed payroll expense, consider gifting an award trip, extra time off, or some other gift that really means something to the individual. Worry less about being consistent than sending a message that excellence is meaningfully rewarded.

Pocket pain: Specifically, health care. Concurrent with less-than-exciting (or nonexistent) pay increases, U.S. workers are paying more for health care, owing to a non-system that has seen costs more than double over the last decade. Employers who offer health care benefits have no choice but share the increasing cost. While currently proposed legislation solves some of the problems, it does little for the biggest problem – controlling costs. Take that, plus the increasing number of workers who have no health care benefits at work, and you’ve got a workforce paying higher premiums, higher out of pocket costs, no realistic solutions on the horizon, AND the increased worry that accompanies having no safety net. Yikes.

What to do: Turn off the TV! Get the facts. Read, starting with Regina Herzlinger’s Who Killed Healthcare?. Discuss the matter with your own physician. Consider establishing, along with like-minded neighboring employers, a private or co-op clinic, as organizations like SAS and the Pebble Beach Company have done. Heavily incent workers, using both positive and negative consequences, to better manage their health. Advocate forcefully for better public policy.

Diminished employment options: The recession, paired with the continued unbundling (and offshoring) of work have drastically reduced the number and scope of available jobs. Moreover, any stigmas or pangs of guilt on the part of management associated with reducing “heads” in the workplace have disappeared. Witness simultaneous announcements by United Parcel Service last month that the company was, 1) increasing earnings guidance due to favorable business conditions, and 2) Doing a restructuring that would eliminate nearly 2,000 jobs. People who once were assured that, even if they didn’t like their current job, could quickly find another now aren’t as comforted by their options.

What to do: Tune in. Let your people know where they stand and how the business is doing – truthfully and regularly. If you’re through making cuts, say so. Monitor and nurture your employment brand as carefully as you do your cash. That may also mean managing people out of the organization (with consideration and decency) who have unplugged and are merely hanging on because they don’t see any options.

The dumbing down of the workplace: The first shoe to drop whenever earnings take a hit, or the economy contracts, falls on the organization’s training budget. We are now in the 3rd year of greatly diminished funding, to include training for managers. To wit, people now find themselves in the unenviable position of working for (and with) less skilled managers. Not a happy thought.

What to do: Take this opportunity to get the jump on your competition. Begin selectively restarting your development activities, with a careful eye for the real priorities. If you can’t yet afford systemic efforts, fund development initiatives (i.e., executive coaching) for worthy staff. Incent workers (using time off or a skill acquisition bonus) to invest in their own development plans, rather than just “taking whatever comes from corporate”.

One last thought – and pardon what sounds like a negative tone here: Dissatisfaction isn’t confined to the workplace. The decade of the 00’s is one that most people in the U.S., if not elsewhere, were glad to put in the rear view mirror. We think it’s safe to say that many (if not most) of us feel less well off, less secure, and yes, less satisfied than at any time in our lives. To think that these feelings don’t make their way into the workplace is delusional.

That said, maybe it’s time to “reboot” this whole idea of leadership and motivation in the workplace. Not to throw it out, but to “reload the program”, under a new set of conditions, a new reality, for a new and better future. It is for that reason that together with our friend and colleague, Meredith Kimbell, we have been working for the better part of a year on a new book, Rebooting Leadership, due for publication in May of this year. Watch this space for more.

Meanwhile, buck up, and Godspeed!

Something interesting happened in Massachusetts recently, something that points to a larger tectonic shift in our society. In a state where the majority of voters affiliate with neither major political party, a Republican who was noticeably reticent to be labeled as such, won an election that no one expected him to win.

Don’t worry. This is not (repeat, NOT) a post about politics. Nor is it a post about religion. But, have you noticed the degree to which people are disassociating from the major organizations in their lives – political parties, and yes, traditional churches? At the same time that fewer and fewer of us choose to associate with either donkeys or elephants, the same is happening with traditional, dogma-dominated churches, much to the delight of the Rick Warrens and Joel Osteens of the world.

But it doesn’t stop there. The third leg of the institutional stool in our lives, our employers, is likewise being swept into the corner of disregard. Not long ago, when you asked someone what they did for a living, they proudly replied that they were a nurse at Baptist Hospital, a welder at GM, or a pilot at American Airlines. Today, not so much. With almost no tip of the cap to the organization, we hear that they are a systems engineer, physical therapist, bartender, or SEO consultant, whatever that is. In a growing number of cases, the disengagement is more active and out in the open. Think late night comedy.

More so than any other factor, this institutional disengagement owes to a crisis of trust. Simply put, whether a government, political party, church, or corporation, we no longer trust the entity to behave in a manner consistent with its espoused purpose and principles.

I can’t speak for the politicians or preachers, but for those of us in the business world, the path is pretty clear. In the post-AIG world, it is pointless for us to ask or expect people to regain trust any time soon in our institutions. If and when it comes, it will be on the back of individual leaders who, one at a time, are doing the things necessary to regain the benefit of the doubt of their followers. More than just waiting and wishing them (us) luck, there are things we can do to support this effort:

1. For going on three years, our training budgets have been slashed to the bone as we’ve operated on the premise that we can work our way out of a bad economy by dumbing down the organization. It’s high time we resume funding development activity, most particularly for our young leaders who need it the most. If you can’t yet fund system wide training, invest in some coaching for your more promising folks.
2. On the premise that people would rather watch than hear a sermon, each of us must redouble our commitment to keeping our promises. If we would spend half as much time making our word our bond as we do wordsmithing and putting the right spin on our words, we would be miles ahead.
3. We need to do a much better job of recognizing and rewarding those leaders who consistently earn the benefit of the doubt, and, dealing with those who don’t.

The path is long and mostly uphill, but it’s not going to get any easier over time. Let’s get going.

Godspeed!

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows