Activity Versus Results

Last week, one of our area’s small town community newspapers ran an article about a Good Samaritan (GS) trying to locate the owner of an Iphone he found in a store.  What caught my attention was the string of ‘activities’ between the GS and the Iphone owner’s son.  Here is a quick recap:

• Using the call list, the GS redialed the last call made which was to “ICE-HOME”.  A teenager answered and confirmed it was his Mom’s phone.  The GS asked the teenager to let his Mom know her Iphone had been found and it would be at the store’s Customer Service counter.    Teenager confirmed the instructions.
• Almost immediately, the Mom’s Iphone rang again.  The GS noticed the call was coming from the same number that he had just called – so he answered it.  Without knowing who was answering the phone, the son asked if the person on the other end could tell his Mom that she lost her phone.  When he discovered it was the guy who had just called him – he hung up.
• Thirty seconds later the iPhone rang again.  Same number on the screen.  The GS decided to let this one go to voicemail.
• As the GS arrived at the Customer Service counter to drop off the lost I-phone the following text message appeared on the screen – “U lost ur phone.  It’s @ cust service.”

This story illustrates a classic employee engagement challenge in many businesses today - simply go through lots of “engagement” activities but falling short on generating positive, sustainable results.  Many focus on processes, technology, and procedures versus accountability and changing behaviors.    

Here are some common engagement activities, I’ve seen business struggle with:

• Conducting employee opinion surveys; BUT creating no accountability for feedback, action planning and execution after the results are tabulated.
• Re-engineering performance management rating scales, descriptors, competencies, etc.; BUT lacking discipline to hold multiple, two-way dialogs with employees throughout the year on goals, successes, challenges, and improvement opportunities.
• Sending everyone to training and development classes; BUT doing minimal follow-up and application of what was taught.  
• Automating job opening/posting processes to increase visibility; BUT providing generic, minimal, or no feedback to applicants who were not selected.
• Initiating employee recognition programs; BUT forgetting the importance of recognition being sincere, timely, specific, and ideally aligned to the ‘receivers’ wants or needs.
• Creating more ‘high tech’ communication; BUT reducing the amount of ‘high touch’ opportunities.

Like our iPhone story, lots of activities can create busyness and a false sense of accomplishment.  High performance organizations know that flawless execution of “how” things are done is as important as “what” is done.  High performance organizations get results because they do not settle for any “if’s, ands, or buts.”