Management morals

A philosophy professor gave an unusual test to his class. He lifted his chair onto his desk and wrote on the board simply: “Prove that this chair does not exist.” The class set to work, composing long complex explanations – except one student, who took just 30 seconds to complete and hand in his paper, attracting surprised glances from his classmates and the professor. Some days later the class received their grades for the test. The student who took 30 seconds was judged the best. His answer was, “What chair?”

Lesson 1: Companies look for creative, quick-thinking employees. You can achieve a first class degree and be a star in your exams but at work you need to be quick and think quick and think out of the box.

In 1985, a film company facing financial pressure hired a new president. In an effort to cut costs, the president asked the two leaders of a division, Ed and Alvy, to conduct layoffs. Ed and Alvy resisted – eliminating employees would dilute the company’s value. The president issued an ultimatum: A list of names was due to him at nine o’clock the next morning.

When the president received the list, it contained two names: Ed and Alvy.

No layoffs were conducted, and a few months later Steve Jobs bought the division from Lucasfilm and started Pixar with Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith.

Employees were grateful that “managers would put their own jobs on the line for the good of their teams,” marvels Stanford’s Robert Sutton, noting that even a quarter century later, this “still drives and inspires people at Pixar.”

Lesson 2: Corporate ethics must start from the top. When managers set an example and raise the standards, employees know that they too must keep to the standard. 

About 10 years ago, two weeks before Valentine’s Day, a female customer, whom we will call Sue, stopped into the store to buy a bike for her husband. Because she had gone all out to get the very best bike she could for her husband, she needed to pay us in increments. So, she put a deposit on the bike until she could save up the remaining $ 200 to pay it off. Wanting to surprise her husband on Valentine’s Day, Sue asked Greg, a Zane’s employee, if he could put the bike in the display window that evening after she had decorated the bike with some ribbon, balloons, and a sign she made that read, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Bob.” Greg, of course, said he was happy to help her pull off the surprise and that he would put the bike in the front window.

Sue planned to bring Bob by the store, along with a few co-workers who were in on the surprise, prior to their romantic dinner. She had been dropping hints along the way and couldn’t wait to see the expression on Bob’s face. Everything was in place, except that Greg had forgotten to put the bike in the display before heading out that day.

We arrived the next morning to an irate message from Sue. Realising how serious a mistake we’d made, we knew we needed to go above and beyond the call to duty to turn this disaster into a positive experience for the local couple. We waved the remaining balance owed on the bike, tried to re-create a romantic evening at the best Italian restaurant in the area with no spending limit and we called up a gourmet coffee shop down the road to have an elaborate lunch delivered to Sue and her co-workers who had come out to see Bob’s excited expression the night before.

Obviously more concerned with rectifying our mistake than the budget to do so, we spent about $ 400 to correct our error and maintaining the integrity of our lifetime customer culture. Plus, considering that Sue and Bob could be worth $ 25,000 to Zane’s Cycles, it was well worth the investment, particularly because I don’t think Sue expected as much as we gave her. We provided more than she thought was reasonable, and as a result, we turned a terrible mistake into a positive experience for Sue, Bob and all of Sue’s co-workers.

The best part of the story, though, is that Greg – the employee who forgot to put the bike in the display – sent me an envelope in the mail with a $ 400 check enclosed to reimburse us for the cost of rebuilding the customer relationship and a letter apologising for jeopardising a prospective lifetime customer. Of course, I never cashed Greg’s check. I have it framed with the letter above my desk as a reminder that although we lost a few hundred dollars that day, it was worth every cent in two culture-reinforcing ways. We managed to save our relationship with the customer, and we had the great thrill of witnessing our employees take our principles to heart. To me, that was priceless.

Lesson 3: The true meaning of customer service and how the culture needs to get drilled into all. 

Mistakes do happen but rectifying the mistake going beyond an apology and making a customer feel valued is truly a customer service experience.

‘Stephen Covey’s Big Rocks’. Imagine a bucket. Put three or four big rocks in. “Is the bucket full? “No” you reply. “Of course not” I say and put some smaller rocks in it to fill in the gaps. “Full now?”, “No”. I put in some sand, then some water. It’s full.

So, what’s the learning here? It’s to do with the order. What would happen if you’d reversed the order? Put the water in first, then the sand, then the small rocks. There would be no room for the big rocks. These big rocks are the important things in your life. You need to schedule them first, not try to squeeze them in after arranging the water (writing pointless reports), sand (unnecessary travel) or small rocks (staff meetings where no-one listens and everyone looks at the clock).

What are the big rocks in your life? For many it’s things like family, time to watch the children grow up, time to write that novel, time for themselves, time to make a difference. You decide. You identify 3 or 4 things you believe are important. The 3 or 4 things that will make a difference at your funeral.

Lesson 4: Here is a lesson depending on different perceptions of people but applicable to all areas both management and personal.

A student who thought he had it “all figured out” would visit his teacher each day for personal lessons about life. Despite the teacher’s attempts to share her life experience, the student resisted. One day the teacher took a different approach. The teacher asked the student if he would like some tea. The teacher proceeded to set the tea table and brought in a huge pot of piping hot tea. She not only filled the student’s cup, but once the cup was full, she continued to pour. Tea overflowed, streaming onto the table and the beautiful carpet. Shocked, the student jumped up from his chair and started screaming at the teacher, “Stop! You must be crazy! You’re ruining everything! Can’t you see what you are doing?” The teacher continued her pouring as if the student weren’t present until the entire pot was empty. Only then did she look calmly at the student and respond, “If you want to receive my tea, you must keep your cup empty.”

Like a wise student, we can gain insight only if we are open to change. Change is always our teacher, pointing new directions, suggesting new options, testing our potentialities. Change challenges our current reality by forcing a new reality to rush in. If we’re open to it, if our cup is empty, new possibilities flow into our lives. If we’re not open to change, we respond to it like an enemy we have to fend off. 

Lesson 5: Positive change requires letting go of old patterns and taking a fresh approach. It demands going beyond our preconceived ideas. A story about the relationship of a teacher and student illustrates this principle.

There are three monkeys standing in line in a cage, and above the third monkey there is a bunch of bananas. The third monkey naturally reaches for the sweet treats, and as he takes one, the other two monkeys are drenched with water. So they immediately start at the third monkey who is busily munching on his favourite food. But he doesn’t realise what’s happening, so he reaches for another banana and the other two are deluged. By the time the third monkey has eaten the bunch of bananas, the other two are quite annoyed. 

So in steps the scientist, and replaces the third monkey with a new monkey. He espies the bananas and as he stretches out his arm, he is attacked by the other two monkeys. The new monkey doesn’t quite understand why, but quickly stops going after the bananas. Some time passes and the scientist comes back and takes one of the drenched monkeys and replaces him. This new monkey again goes for the bananas and the other two attack him. Then the scientist replaces the third of the original monkeys, with a new one. 

This new monkey is immediately attacked, and has no idea why. Even when the banana/water system is disabled, and another monkey introduced, he is attacked immediately. And if the scientist keeps repeating the experiment, the two monkeys in the cage attack the new ape being introduced, though nobody can remember why, it’s just the way it is.

Lesson 6: Organisation culture – is like a shadow government!