a lot to do just to be hired

Emily Cole believes being Fans First starts with just "being a good human." She highlights how coaching good behavior starts during the hiring process. "This gives us a chance to really work alongside someone and show them how things operate in Bananaland. If they can naturally mirror the way we treat people, that's the first requirement. We can coach the skills part.

For example, we send handwritten thank-you cards to people who interview for full-time positions. If we get a handwritten thank-you card back, it's a great indicator that they listen carefully and respond. It also means they can pick up our culture's language. "When great individuals join our team, they automatically become even more caring, different, enthusiastic, fun, growing, and hungry because that's the Fans First Way, and that's what we focus on daily," Emily emphasizes.

These little tests may sound like a lot to do just to be hired, but people love our interview process. It has three parts. First, applicants do a cover letter so we can see their personality. (Coach Gillum's was legendary, helping him to beat out a coach from MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates.) Second, they write a Fans First essay and explain how they fit our core beliefs. Third, they write a future resume because we're more interested in what they'd like to do in the future than what they've already done.

That last part leads to deeper engagement with our new team member. We ask our staff members what they want to do in the future so we can work toward those goals and better support them. We can have open conversations about their goals. We may hire them to work for the Bananas, but we also want what's best for them as opposed to what's best for us. We acknowledge that it's not all about us, that they are not living just for this company, and that they are still their own separate people, with their own hopes and dreams and creativity. 

Jesse Cole

Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience by Jesse Cole. Lioncrest. 2022.

get humans to willingly choose another behavior

Contrary to what many consulting firms would like for you to believe (and pay for), change practitioners don’t need any special certification to be successful. At its best, change management is interdisciplinary, so a wide array of skill sets and expertise can be leveraged and successfully applied to change efforts.

The function of a change effort is to get humans to willingly choose another behavior within some institutional context. That’s it.

"Rethinking Change Management as Design," by Brittany Stone. Method. Accessed on April 13, 2023.

what doesn't work in the box

What doesn't work in the box.

1. Trying to change others

2. Doing my best to "cope" with others

3. Leaving

4. Communicating

5. Implementing new skills or techniques

6. Changing my behavior

How to get out of the box.

...the moment I see another as a person, with needs, hopes, and worries as real and legitimate as my own - I'm out of the box.

Leadership and Self-deception: Getting Out of the Box by Arbinger Institute. Berrett-Koehler. 2002. p.136,144

A.D.K.A.R.

 

Awareness represents a person's understanding of the nature of change, why the change is being made and the risk of not changing. Awareness also includes information about the internal and external drivers that created the need for change, as well as "what's in it for me."

Desire represents the willingness to support and engage in a change. Desire is ultimately about personal choice, influenced by the nature of the change, by an individual's personal situation, as well as intrinsic motivators that are unique to each person.

Knowledge represents the information, training and education necessary to know how to change. Knowledge includes information about behaviors, processes, tools, systems, skills, job roles and techniques that are needed to implement a change. 

Ability represents the realization or execution of the change. Ability is turning knowledge into action. Ability is achieved when a person or group has demonstrated capability to implement the change at the required performance levels.

Reinforcement represents those internal and external factors that sustain a change. External reinforcements could include recognition, rewards and celebrations that are tied to the realization of the change. Internal reinforcements could be a person's internal satisfaction with his or her achievement or other benefits derived from the change on a personal level.

Jeffrey M. Hiatt

ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Community. 2006. Prosci Research. p.2,3

no one knows how to use them

In Scott Keller's book Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths, co-written without colleague, Mary Meaney, he recounted a travel experience that is particularly salient on the topic of skill-sets. Scott was fortunate enough to visit East Timor some five years after it had become a fully independent country. He was disheartened to find that the country was riddled with poverty, in part due to its poor infrastructure, especially in light of the significant reconstruction investment that it and many other nations had made on independence. He wondered why things hadn’t changed.

As he was traveling through the country, he came across a field full of bulldozers, compactors, jaws, and all manner of heavy construction equipment ideal for road-making. The field was overgrown, the metal was rusting, and a few local kids were climbing on the equipment as if they were in a giant playground. “What’s all this?,” Scott asked. “Donations from China from when we declared independence,” came the response from his local guide. “What’s wrong with them?,” Scott asked. His guide replied, “Nothing, but no one knows how to use them.”

The aspiration of many countries, including China, to help East Timor develop as a nation was clearly bold and well-intentioned. The desired change, however, fell apart because the skill-set requirements to deliver the aspiration hadn’t been assessed or addressed. This example may seem extreme, but to us it’s emblematic of what we often see in failed change programs. Organizations make East Timor-like big investments in changing structures, systems, or processes without ensuring the skills are built to enable them to work the way they are intended. Our research backs up the premise: organizations that explicitly assess their current skill requirements against those required to fulfill their performance aspirations are 6.6 times more likely to succeed in their change efforts.

Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger

Beyond Performance 2.0: A Proven Approach to Leading Large-Scale Change. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2019

google leadership evaluation

Here are Google's leadership evaluation questions (a scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree)):

1. My manager gives me actionable feedback that helps me improve my performance.

2. My manager does not "micromanage" (get involved in details that should be handled at other levels).

3. My manager shows consideration for me as a person.

4. The actions of my manager show that he/she values the perspective I bring to the team, even if it is different from his/her own.

5. My manager keeps the team focused on our priority results/deliverables.

6. My manager regularly shares relevant information from his/her manager and senior leaders.

7. My manager has had a meaningful discussion with me about career development in the past six months.

8. My manager communicates clear goals for our team.

9. My manager has the technical expertise (e.g., coding in Tech, selling in Global Business, accounting in Finance) required to effectively manage me.

10. I would recommend my manager to other Googlers.

11. I am satisfied with my manager's overall performance as a manager.

Then Google employees are asked to complete two other questions: 

12. What would you recommend your manager keep doing?

13. What would you have your manager change?

The evaluation spends almost no time assessing a manager's knowledge, skill, and experience. All but one question focuses on soft skills: communication, feedback, coaching, teamwork, respect, and consideration.

What you know matters, but communicating, delegating, creating a sense of autonomy and purpose...that matters a lot more.

Granted, you could argue that possessing superb technical skills is less important for Google's team managers; after all, it's easier for Google to recruit and retain incredibly skilled people than it is for many companies. 

But that argument misses the larger point. While most employees need some degree of training early on, the emphasis soon shifts from what they know to how they use their knowledge and skills.

Jeff Haden

"Here's How Google Knows in Less Than 5 Minutes if Someone Is a Great Leader" Inc. November 18, 2020

resilience like a muscle

There is an inherent fallacy in the way people view resilience, believing it to be a trait rather than a skill. Thus, people operate under the false mantra that “you either have it or you don’t.”

The truth is that resiliency is much like a muscle — over time it grows stronger through effective leadership. That’s not to say a workforce constantly exposed to adversity will eventually become more resilient. Rather, leadership needs to create a culture where hardships can also be seen as an opportunity to evolve both the individual and the organization.

Resilience can also be misinterpreted as overconfidence. People who are resilient are often seen as tough, self-reliant, and unaffected by the same stresses and negative emotions others might face. This can lead others to believe that resilient individuals don’t need any help. Not only does this stifle collaboration, but it can have a negative effect on the mental wellbeing of resilient individuals.

It’s important that leadership understands how these misconceptions can be detrimental to their organization. Furthermore, leadership has to realize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to building resilience in the workplace. Rather, it requires a robust strategy.

"5 Ways to Build Resilience in the Workplace" FTI Journal. October 2020

one in five corporate executives are psychopaths

An Australian study has found that about one in five corporate executives are psychopaths – roughly the same rate as among prisoners. 

The study of 261 senior professionals in the United States found that 21 percent had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits. The rate of psychopathy in the general population is about one in a hundred.

Nathan Brooks, a forensic psychologist who conducted the study, said the findings suggested that businesses should improve their recruitment screening. 

He said recruiters tend to focus on skills rather than personality features and this has led to firms hiring “successful psychopaths” who may engage in unethical and illegal practices or have a toxic impact on colleagues.

Jonathan Pearlman

"1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths, study finds." The Telegraph. September 13, 2016

hire for attitude and train for skill

The best companies hire for attitude and train for skill. Pal’s [Sudden Service - a burger joint] 26 locations employ roughly 1,020 workers, 90 percent of whom are part-time, 40 percent of whom are between the ages of 16 and 18. It has developed and fine-tuned a screening system to evaluate candidates from this notoriously hard-to-manage demographic—a 60-point psychometric survey, based on the attitudes and attributes of Pal’s star performers, that does an uncanny job of predicting who is most likely to succeed. Among the agree/disagree statements: “For the most part, I am happy with myself.” “I think it is best to trust people you have just met.” “Raising your voice may be one way to get someone to accept your point of view.” Pal’s understands that character counts for as much as credentials, that who you are is as important as what you know.

Bill Taylor

"How One Fast-Food Chain Keeps Its Turnover Rates Absurdly Low". Harvard Business Review. January 26, 2016.

engaging in new experiences

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has identified… an important contributing factor of happiness – engaging in new experiences… that broaden our horizons. “Whenever we discover new challenges,” he writes, “whenever we use new skills, we feel a deep sense of enjoyment. To repeat this desirable feeling, we must find ever higher challenges, build more sophisticated skills; in doing so we help the evolution of complexity move along….”

He popularized this notion in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, and described it as that sense of “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

Anne Kreamer

It’s Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace. 2011. Random House.