It’s a great day in Arizona.  Not just because of the idyllic weather, but because it is the first day of Spring Training – my second favorite day of the year (right behind Thanksgiving.)  If you’ve never been to Spring Training before, you really should come check it out.  Picture perfectly-sized stadiums, warm sunshine, unusually accessible ball players, and fans brimming with an overwhelming sense of optimism that this could be their team’s big year– it’s a beautiful thing.

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The word responsibility is being tossed around a lot these days:  Lawmakers arguing about fiduciary responsibility; consumers struggling with financial responsibility; corporate giants disregarding social responsibility; doctors demonstrating questionable ethical responsibility…  Even President Obama joined in with his reminder of the civic responsibility that comes with the price of freedom.

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Comedy is at its best when it is able to take a small societal quirk, put it under a microscope, and reflect a magnified version back to us in a way that points out the ridiculousness of it all.  Tragedy comes when we realize that the ridiculousness is so wide spread, we shouldn’t be laughing.

CBS’s often hilarious series “how i met your mother” managed to bring us one of those comic tragedies this week with the episode “The Possimbible” in which the characters explore the ins and outs of resumes, identity, and giving Corporate America what it wants.

There’s always a debate as to whether television reflects or shapes reality.  This episode should put that argument to rest.  There is no way the writers could have known that by the time this episode aired, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be unemployed and struggling with exactly the same issue as the episode’s premise:  figuring out how to best stand out in the crowd.

I encourage you to watch the episode in its entirety to make sure you catch all its brilliance.  But for those of you frustrated by the recruiting and hiring processes of big business, I’ve summed up Barney’s particularly profound insights here. To get the full affect, check out Barney’s video resume at the end of this post.  I’ve watched it at least 10 times and I laugh every time.

How to succeed and stand out in a sea of applicants

• Create the appearance of being a bold risk-taker, but don’t ever actually do anything
• Invent and use your own words to show creativity and vision
• Refuse to interview for a position
• Scoff at any first job offer
• Use a video resume
• Image is everything.  Look sharp and say a lot without saying anything.
• Be awesome

For me, the comedy of this episode is in its demonstration of the yet-to-be-tapped potential for video resumes, and in the examples of how people play games with their written resumes.  The tragedy is in its showcasing the pervasiveness of manipulative “personal brand positioning” as a means of being recognized. It truly has become an art form to create a resume that has the “right” buzzwords so a computer program finds you and spits you out onto a stack with 20 or so lucky others.  Forget the value of your accomplishments; if you don’t know the current lingo you will continue to fly solo.

If you are a recruiter, this should give you pause.  Particularly, I imagine, as you are most likely currently caught up in a tsunami of resumes.  The key to sourcing the right talent can no longer be relegated to a software program.  It requires the entirely human ability of recognizing authenticity.  Every resume has a voice; are you able to find it?

And what does this mean for hiring managers?  How about the ability to identify the real criteria for what is required to bring value to both the organization and the role?  I once listened to a COO announce to a gathering of over 200 of his company’s managers that his sole criterion for selecting the right person for a critical EVP role was “Someone I’d like to sit down and have a beer with.”  I am not making that up.  I cringed.  He was 100% serious.  What message is that sending?  There are a lot of people I’d like to sit down and have a beer with, Neil Patrick Harris (aka Barney Stinson) for starters, but that doesn’t mean I am going to put him in charge of any aspect of my business.  (Sorry Neil; the first one’s on me!)

This episode points out what anyone who has applied for a job over the past three years knows:  companies seem to be confusing the value of having the right skills and attitudes with the value of saying the right words.  Persona and first impressions beat out ability and desire.

The current state of business is shouting at us that the process for identifying employees who will be valuable contributors needs to change.   The facade of success needs to be dismantled.  We need to get back to identifying and rewarding behaviors that aren’t self-serving – that lead to long-term success…to looking at actions, not words.

Otherwise we are doing nothing more than continuing to breed the traits that brought us to this point in the first place – traits that at best will produce nothing better than (as Barney might say…wait for it….) awesomocrity.
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You don’t have to look hard to notice that our Country is experiencing a crisis of leadership. Pick up any newspaper and you’ll find dozens of articles recounting the latest leadership shenanigans marked by self-interest masquerading as capitalism. Blagojevich, Madoff, Thain… And then there are the companies that continue to blunder their way through, only to make matters worse. Microsoft posts a $14.7 billion profit, lays off 5000 workers, and then wants props for maintaining its employee giving program this year–oblivious to the hypocrisy of this.  Citibank receives billions of dollars of government bailout money and yet somehow it slips someone’s mind that they should probably cancel the purchase order for the new corporate jet. The headlines are littered with examples that prove some of the formerly elite Fortune 100 leaders still just don’t get it, and in some cases are actually making things worse.

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Denmark made international news recently when their parliament passed a law requiring all 1100 of Denmark’s largest organizations to publish their CSR practices, or their socially responsible investment policies by 2010.  What’s more is that they want all the gory details:  the strategies used, the programs implemented, and any results achieved.  Although it is voluntary for now, most companies are stepping up and beginning their reporting this year.  This is good news for us conscious consumers wanting consistent criteria to help us better determine which brands should earn our hard earned dollars (or krones); it’s bad news for anyone inside those organizations who was surprised by this law and is unprepared to comply.
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Last October, my computer crashed and I lost everything – my contacts, my leadership development courseware, my records and all of my work in progress.  I don’t need to tell you that it was devastating, I’m sure you can imagine.  Losing everything I had worked hard to build and create over the years – the basis for my business and the source of my livelihood – felt a lot like losing a limb, or some other similarly significant extension of myself. 

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Since I am self-employed, I don’t have a boss to acknowledge today.  So instead, I am going to give a “shout-out” (since that is apparently an acceptable thing for a professional person to do these days) to bosses everywhere with some thoughts and sincere wishes for all of you – particularly as you navigate through your days and try to stay the course in this crazy economy.  Please feel free to comment and add your own wishes to this list!

My wishes for bosses on this boss’s day and actually – every day are as follows…
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The weather channel had a severe weather alert for Phoenix this past weekend that read something like this:  A cold front will bring cool breezes with rain possible in the higher elevations.   For us desert dwellers that means the end of triple digit temperatures and the beginning of 8 or so months of pure heaven.  If you live in the metro area and you didn’t spend at least 60% of your weekend outdoors, then to quote Steven Colbert “A Wag of the finger at you!”

I kicked off my Sunday with a much needed hike in the McDowellSonoran Preserve.  I was looking to trick myself into a good cardio workout by disguising it as a commune with nature.  What I ended up with instead was a lesson in on-the-job training and a reminder for all of us in charge of work place learning:  Very often the most effective learning takes place in the field.

Watching On-the-Job Training (OJT) in Action
A couple 100 yards into the trail I came across two 15-ish-year old boys on mountain bikes chatting in the middle of a (dry) river bed.  A few seconds of eavesdropping tells me that one of the boys is having his first ever off-roading experience and that the other boy is there to show him the ropes.  “I don’t want to fall off!” is what I hear the new mountain biker say as the boys head forward on their trail.  “Don’t worry!” says the other boy.  “Just do what we talked about and I promise you’ll be fine.  Follow me.”

“I don’t want to fall off.”  How telling is that?  How many of us experience a similar, although perhaps unvoiced reaction when faced with using a new skill while navigating an unfamiliar situation?

And what a telling reminder it also is about the importance of establishing trust in and respect for our leadership – enough trust and respect that we be willing to follow them into previously uncharted territory..

Further down the trail I encounter the boys again.  This time, the trail leads to the bottom of a 10 foot hill that I assume they just biked down.  The new mountain biker looks exhilarated and they are both still on their bikes, so that’s good.  More eavesdropping.  “So what you want to do next time is keep your arms straight as you are going down.” The rope-shower says to the other.  “Don’t peddle once you hit the slope.  Just sit back.”  The training continues.

I am impressed.  I want to hire this kid.  He is a natural teacher and leader.

Watching this interaction I had one thought:  Traditional corporate training could sure suck the air out of the tires of this off-road experience.

I started thinking about what the standard approach would be if a corporate learning function were tasked with teaching mountain biking.  Would the participants have that same exhilarated look on their faces, or would they be busy texting and wondering if class would be done early?

That’s when it hits me.  If this is what engaged learning looks like, perhaps we have been focusing our training efforts on the wrong audience.  Could it be that if we really want to impact the corporate learner’s experience, we need to stop focusing so much time and energy on the end-user/learner, and start spending a little more time teaching the learners’ leaders how to deliver engaging OJT?

Maybe it’s time we blaze a new trail
Conducting needs assessments, gap analyses, SME interviews, and mind mapping to create more end-user job aids, role plays, e-learning, and workshops – it’s the reality of our adult education profession.  And that’s just the good stuff we spend time on.  Yes, in highly effective cultures with a clear employee development strategy which includes shared accountability for growth, these elements can be enough.  But in a majority of businesses, adding all of that all together will just give you a simulated experience at best.  A waste of money at worst.

Think about it.  It’s very doubtful that applying the traditional approach of what we have come to think of as corporate training would leave either the trainer or the trainee engaged yet alone exhilarated.  And without question, the traditional approach would most likely incorporate very little accountability on the part of the managers of the new mountain bikers.  Which is really what is needed when it comes to executing the ultimate road test:  on-the-job productivity, growth, engagement and success.

So what am I saying?
That all corporate training is ineffective?  No, not at all.  I’m just saying that perhaps by spending more of our time helping managers become better teachers, we could ultimately end up with a better ROI all the way around.  If we recognize that impactful learning takes place in the field and on the job, and that not everyone is a natural teacher, shouldn’t we do everything we can to develop a management team with a skill set that supports effective OJT?

Want more reasons?  Compound the importance of effective OJT with research on why employees change jobs:  poor relationships with their bosses, feeling they aren’t getting enough development, and an overall lack of faith in their leadership.  These are all reasons that could be overcome by getting managers more involved in employee development.  So why not equip managers with the tools, the time, and the skills to develop their employees and build the manager-employee relationship in the process?

Effective Learning Changes Lives
Watching those two boys on the trail reminded me of all the reasons I love learning – that experience changed the new mountain biker forever; it opened up a whole new world for him.  Isn’t that the goal of education?  Not just to download facts and figures and company protocol, but to give a person a skill set that allows them to venture out on new trails and go even further?

As professionals gifted with the desire and ability to teach, I think we should focus more energy on sharing the teaching skill set when we can.  Heaven knows, there is enough work to be done.   And we get to change more lives in the process.

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I don’t typically discuss politics with my family.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy healthy disagreements; it’s just that a few years back when every political discussion inevitably led to the latest Rush Limbaugh view being quoted as both factual and reasonable that I decided to walk away.  I mean really, if you are going to have an opinion, at least have it be your own.  Then we’ll talk.  So I’ve learned to stick to lighter subjects.  “What do you think of the Pope?” comes to mind.
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Like many of you, I’ve been watching the convention coverage over the past few weeks.  Yes, I am 100% interested in getting a first-hand impression of the candidates and their takes on the (numerous, critical, future-impacting) issues.  But for me it is also about my ongoing love affair with language and words and how when strung together like notes in a song, words can move listeners from passive observers to engaged allies.  It is fun to see an audience be seamlessly transported from an overwhelming sense of pride, to one of hope, and then perhaps on to courage or some other equally powerful feeling.

I usually react with a bit of envy thinking “Ugh!  Why can’t I do that?”  But during this election coverage I had a different (much healthier, thank you very much) thought.  This time I thought “Why don’t we take some pointers from these speech writers and talk to each other like this more often?  If words can create such positive emotions, why not just make it a best practice to use our acceptance speeches on each other every day?”

The need for acceptance is a common theme throughout our lives.
From teenage drinking to gang membership to business ethics – people constantly weigh decisions that tempt them to turn away from better judgment for the hope of achieving a greater sense of belonging.  What you buy, where you live, what your “internal editor” allows you to say out loud…these seemingly everyday decisions typically can be tied to a need for some form of acceptance.  And at work, research on the reasons employees leave companies often cites the lack of recognition for contributions, poor relationships with bosses, and losing faith in leadership – all issues attributable to acceptance.

If political candidates can use simple words to boost the enthusiasm of voters across the country – to inspire and encourage people they have zero direct contact with, shouldn’t we be able to do the same with those people we encounter on a daily basis?  Shouldn’t we be able to use acceptance speech concepts to build relationships, to encourage engagement, and perhaps rally our own employees around a cause?

I think we can, or at the very least, that it’s worth a try.  So I’ve boiled what makes a good acceptance speech into 7 simple concepts we can practice in our daily lives.

1. Commit to a cause

Winners often speak about a cause that inspired them to embark on the journey that ultimately led to their successes.  We hear a lot of talk these days about how Gen Y wants to work for companies who are making a difference.  And the positive correlation between a company’s authentic CSR efforts and their financial results are real and tangible.

Standing for something bigger than you has universal appeal.  You’ll find that other people will willingly rally around your pursuit of a cause – as long as the cause is heartfelt, sincere and selfless.    So, for example, think of parents who work for a better future for their children through supporting education.  Think of those entrepreneurs who start companies to build products that make our lives better.  Think of those retirees who go back to work to make a difference, not a paycheck.

If your passionate pursuit is limited to that new Gucci handbag or Sony flat screen, it’s just not going to cut it, no matter how fabulous they are. If, on the other hand, you dedicate your work to someone or something outside of yourself that inspires and drives you it will fuel your enthusiasm and turn an ordinary job into an extraordinary opportunity.

2.  Give credit to the people who inspire you and acknowledge those who helped you along the way

We all encounter people in our lives who show up at just the right time to propel us to be a better version of ourselves.  They accept us for who we are and encourage us to act on our ideas.  And it is highly likely that we have provided that same inspiration for someone else.

What differentiates one person from another is how they treat those people who help them along the way.  Sincere gratitude and appreciation can move us to tears.  Think of John Nash’s (Hollywood created) Nobel Prize acceptance speech in “A Beautiful Mind.”

There are basically two types of people:  those who give credit and those who use you as a stepping stone.

• Who would you rather work with?
• Who would you rather be friends with?
• Who would you more likely willingly follow?

3.  Show your enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is contagious.  It’s like a jump start for living life to the fullest.  And yet somehow our assumed Puritan ancestry runs deep and causes us to censor ourselves for fear of looking silly or getting the dreaded eye roll.  Are you uncomfortable with displays of enthusiasm?  How did you react when Roberto Benigni clambered across the audience to receive his Oscar for “La Vita é bella” in 1997?

If you need a kick start on how to release your enthusiasm, head to your nearest Zumba class.  Trust me, you’ll see what I mean.  Life is beautiful.

4.  Be humble and gracious

No one likes a cocky winner.  I have enjoyed watching Raphael Nadal play tennis over the past two years.  Admittedly, for the first year it was mostly because I thought he would be fun to sculpt.  But after his humble Wimbledon Championship speech I became that much more of a fan.

When people are humble and gracious in their moments of greatness, everyone else just cheers that much harder for their success.

5.  Use inclusive language

Whether it be the Presidential nomination, the Nobel Prize or a Salesman of the Year Award, when great achievements are recognized the acceptance speech gives the rest of us a chance to participate in the moment.

Using words like “we” and “our” when referring to efforts will keep people engaged in the process; using them when referring to results and rewards will keep people motivated.  Anytime you can take away that nagging little voice in people’s minds that asks “Me too?” you build acceptance.

6.  Use stories to help people relate and understand

Remember back to your childhood when you would repeatedly ask adults “Why?”  What was the usual response?  If your experience was anything like mine you were met with a bunch of “Because I said so’s.”

It wasn’t a good answer then, and it isn’t a good answer now.  We are curious by nature and want to understand how all the pieces fit together.  We are also highly visual.  Using stories will help people experience where you are trying to take them.

To kick it up a notch, use stories that help keep people focused on a vision for the future.  Dr. Martin Luther King was brilliant at this, and his words still inspire us today to continue to be better at acceptance.

7.  Keep it short

The average attention span is shrinking.  It doesn’t matter how interesting you are, unless your conversation is produced, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino it’s a good idea to keep your comments brief.  On that note (as if it isn’t too late already) I will heed my own advice!  Enough said.  Let the acceptance begin.

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Enjoying a nice walk along the Arizona Canal the other day to soak in our perfect weather, I noticed an unusually tall 70-something-old man approaching.  He was dressed a bit like Gilligan and looked nice enough.  (Now that I think of it, can anyone really look threatening wearing a skipper’s hat?)  Either way… “Good morning!” I greeted him with that level of enthusiasm you can so easily muster on the perfect day.  “Actually,” he sneered back at me “it is afternoon.”  My first thought was that perhaps I had been strolling a little slower than usual, so I dialed my I-Pod to its clock: 11:04.  My next thought was “Seriously?  A stranger gives you a heartfelt hello, and your best response is to correct them?” And an incorrect correction at that, mind you.

We are a Nation obsessed with perfection.  Starbucks is even building their current marketing campaign around it (and was the inspiration for my title!)   Right and wrong, correct and incorrect – just think about all of the words and phrases we have at our disposal to describe all the ways that something or someone isn’t quite up to par.  We look for the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the perfect schools, the perfect house… Judging shows like “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars” top the ratings and feed our need to critique.

But in our search for perfection, we are ignoring a conundrum of sorts.  Because isn’t the truth that by its very nature, perfectionism itself is a flaw?

Perfect order
Let me first get a confession out of the way:  I myself am a recovering perfectionist.  It certainly wasn’t something I strived for; it is just how I was wired at birth.  If you give her a chance, my mom will talk to you for hours about some of the perfectionism quirks I displayed growing up:  Not speaking until I was almost 3 years old, and then starting in perfectly formed full sentences, for example.  I was the only child on the block that was known for quietly sneaking about in the middle of the night just to pick up my bedroom.  To this day, I can’t go to sleep knowing there are dirty dishes in the sink and newspapers strewn on the floor, but I am getting better.  Of course, if you are too obsessed with perfect order, you are labeled obsessive-compulsive, so there’s that.

The point is that we find comfort in order.  Life is messy and unpredictable and being able to put some structure to the things we can control can help us plot our way through.

At work we use agendas to schedule our time, walls to define our work space, files to organize our papers.  We label people and put them in boxes and then fill out standardized forms to show them how to move to the next box.  Training classes follow a proven instructional design process, Six Sigma evaluates organizational processes to identify and eliminate waste.  Our need for order shows up everywhere.  There is even a correct order for working through change.

“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” – Henry Brooks Adams

There is something to be said for learning how to live life a little less structured and orderly.  Any business book you pick up these days talks about how organizations need to build nimble structures and cultures that foster creativity in order to survive in the global economy, and attract the new generation of workers.  It starts with a basic understanding that even in chaos there is order underlying the seemingly random events and ideas.

Learn how to live with chaos:

• Read “Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution” by Tom Peters
• Identify where too much structure might be impeding your success
• Allow your logical order to leave some room for surprises.

Perfect solutions
The last time I was visiting Baton Rouge, I made a comment while we were stuck sitting still at a green light about how the traffic would move a little better if the lights on this one road were synchronized more effectively.  “Michelle, you can’t fix the world” was my mom’s reply.

She’s right, and at the risk of disappointing Oprah, it’s not like I have aspirations to.  But I would like a few corners of it to move along a little better.  Sometimes simple solutions are so painfully obvious you wonder why nobody has done anything about them.  Then you go to work and sit in a committee meeting tasked with finding ways to help the front-line employees greet your customers with more authentic enthusiasm and for every one idea there are ten people who point out all the reasons something won’t work rather than helping find all the ways it can.  Oh yeah, now I remember.  That’s why we’re sitting still at a green light.

Perfectionism can absolutely stall progress.  Sometimes it’s best to just pull anchor, point your ship in the right direction, and course correct along the way.  I mean, really, how many times has something played out exactly like you planned it, from start to finish?  So why do we put that unrealistic pressure on ourselves and others?

I have seen organizations invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in determining the perfect solution for their high-priority issues, only to have the solution waylaid in the implementation stage when a bigger, higher-priority item comes along that requires the same resources to identify the perfect solution.

Save yourself the time and money and try an approach that emphasizes progress, not perfection:

• Be crystal clear on the mission, objectives and desired outcome
• Set a framework for ongoing communication, key milestones and touch-points
• Measure and evaluate progress continually and course correct as needed

Perfect people
I first became aware of the concept that there are perfect people with Blake Edwards’ movie “10.”  While I wasn’t old enough to actually watch “10” when it first came out, the trailer told enough of the story for me to get the gist.

At the time, it was hard to turn on the TV and not see the clip of Bo Derek running in slow motion along the beach.  I still can’t resist doing my best impersonation of that scene anytime I find myself jogging on a beach –which thankfully for innocent bystanders, isn’t all too often.   As an impressionable teen, what stuck with me from the commotion the film created was the notion that to be worthy of love, one had to be perfect.

So I tried that for about a decade.  I set out to be the perfect student, the perfect child, the perfect friend, the perfect 10… The problem I found out with this approach is that everyone has a different definition of what perfect looks like, and a lot of those ideas conflict.  I just ended up confused.  And exhausted.

What I grew to recognize is what I love most about the people in my life are their odd mannerisms, their outlandish senses of humor, and their unique perspectives.  And thankfully, that’s what they love about me.  I think that intuitively we all recognize this need to be our most true selves and long to leave a bright red mark differentiating our existence on the otherwise ordinarily beige landscape of everyday life.

We have a little more difficulty replicating this at work.  For example, we recruit and promote candidates we feel best mirror our organization’s existing structure and ideas rather than asking “Do we have a culture that will allow people with different thoughts, ideas, and approaches to succeed?”  Studies show that we like people we view as similar to ourselves.  But will 100 more of you really build the thriving organization you envision?

Perfect people are the people who bring out the best in others by just being themselves.  They are the ones who challenge us to be better, by their actions as well as their work and words.

Redefine “perfect” for your organization and learn to:

• Celebrate differences
• Seek out a wide variety of ideas and opinions outside your normal circles
• Allow room for imperfections

Perfect mess
Like a staged model home, when things are too perfect, they somehow lose their soul.  Life is messy and perfection, even if you achieve it, is fleeting.  The bumps in the road are what keep life interesting and what makes us human.

The answer to the conundrum in our search for perfection is that perfection itself is an illusion; and it’s not until we learn to embrace the imperfections that our life will begin to unfold – perfectly flawed and gloriously unpredictable, as it should be.

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We are a nation in need of an instant gratification detox.  I’ve had my suspicions.  I guess between live feeds from the Big Brother house, news streaming the growing number of drug-test failing Olympic athletes, and our obsession with anything having to do with the latest “I-gadget” the addiction was inevitable.  But it was actually the recent Brett Favre debacle that finally proved the validity of my hunch.

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