Shift Happenings with George Suess

4, 4, 3, 2 A World Record


Five states, four airports, 3 planes and two rental cars (the same one twice) all in one day and all for one trip from Augusta, Georgia to Albany, New York. A trying end to an otherwise extremely successful trip introducing the proactive philosophy and positive approach of the Arc of Delaware County to two large agencies, the last leg of the first phase of our Georgia project. More n the record later, but first ...

Once again … the wisdom of direct service staff, the importance of leadership and lessons learned:

This trip concluded the first phase of this year long project (see prior posts for details). We have provided six agencies in Georgia with two days of training over the last five weeks. This training has focused on our philosophy and approach as it applies to the people served. In two weeks we begin the second phase of an additional two days of training at each organization. That phase will focus on organizational culture and employee / HR practices. This week we learned:

1 This training is powerful. Once again 100% of our audiences (well over 400 people) enthusiastically describe this training as the absolute "best" they have ever experienced. The Director of our largest group told us any number of surveyors and consultants have eloquently reported to them what their myriad of problems are but none of them gave them the practical, systemic solutions we presented.

2 People are eager to do a good job. There is so much talk about poor work ethic in America; yet what we consistently find is that people truly do want to do a good job. But if there is no support or poor leadership they lose heart and things spiral downward.

3 Workers are smart. They know there has to be a better way and they can spot it when they see it.

4 The push and pull of change. Leadership is critical. It is an established fact that cultural change must start at the top. But not enough attention is given to the importance of an inspired workforce. Determined leaders will effectuate change. It may take time and it may get bloody, but change will happen. But it will happen a lot quicker and a lot easier if the workforce pushes while leaders pull.
There is ardent excitement in all six organizations; they have been introduced to a model they can believe in. One that makes sense; will benefit the people they serve; one that is encouraging and positive; one that answers a lot of questions they have wrestled with for years. They're excited and we are excited for them.

5 Alas, unfortunately the first phase of this training also confirmed or rather reconfirmed something very troubling we have known for years. That is, an awful lot of bad hiring and bad promoting is going on and has gone on for quite some time (as in decades).

6 Stop shooting yourself in the foot! Perhaps the most frequent question that arises when attendees start to understand our philosophy and approach is, "How do we get resistant staff to get on board?"
My response is always to begin by stop shooting themselves in the foot. By that I mean begin by improving hiring and promotional practices so as not to continue to hire or promote people who can not or will not eagerly buy into this effort. To achieve higher quality improving these practices is a must. At the risk of mixing metaphors, we have to stop the leak before we start to bale out the boat.
Once the leak is stopped and we are hiring and promoting better candidates they will actually help us turn around poor performers and move out those who are dead weight. Better front line staff will make the poor performers stand out and will make it easier to address their deficiencies. Better supervisors will help us follow through on the retraining of those who will benefit from same or discipline those who are incapable or who resist.

7 Change SWAN to SEAN! For years we have prided ourselves on hiring SWAN's. That is candidates who are smart, willing to learn, ambitious and nice. This emphasis has had many benefits; yet, time and again, we have lamented how hard it is to determine candidates' "willingness to learn". The more unique the organization the more important is the attribute of being willing to learn.
We have spent endless hours trying to improve our interviewing practices to determine this willingness. We do well but failure from time to time, particularly at the upper management level, results in many levels and degrees of frustration and dissatisfaction.
Consequently we continue to study, at times to the point of agony, this matter. We have concluded there are a few reasons why assessing willingness to learn is so difficult. One reason is that it is pretty easy to fake. Look attentive and interested and you can appear willing. Other reasons are that willingness to learn is a fairly passive act and it applies a disproportionate amount of the candidate's willingness to learn to the agency's ability to teach.
The most profound thing I have personally learned this year is that it is more about eagerness than willingness. It is not a matter of the candidate's willingness to listen to us lecture them but rather a matter of them demonstrating an eagerness to learn whatever it is we are teaching as well as those lessons that are unfolding around them even if a formal teaching session hasn't occurred. It is more about the questions they ask than the answers they glean. It is more about the follow up questions than the initial ones. It is more about taking the lessons, applying them independently and asking for feedback than on passing a quiz.
That’s' why we are changing swan to sean. We need employees who are smart eager to learn, ambitious and nice. It's good to be willing but critical to be eager!


Now for more on our traveler's world record:

Bo, Jim and I are claiming a traveler's world record and if you have one to beat it, let us know.

We started by sitting on the runway in our turbo prop Delta Connections plane in Augusta at 8:00. As soon as the doors shut the pilot informed us there was a terrible storm in Atlanta that had put a hold stop on everything going in or out. What to do?

A call back home to our travel agent (glory be for Saturday hours) informed us all Delta flights for the next two days were over booked and we would be lucky to get flights by tomorrow night and we would most certainly have to split up. A real problem since Jim and Bo rode to Albany together.

Pat, our travel agent was great and after checking a bunch of options told us our best chance was to drive to Columbia, South Carolina and buy US Air tickets to Charlotte, North Carolina and grab a connection to Albany from there. She would write a letter to Delta Monday requesting a refund for our Delta tickets.

So back to the Budget rental car booth where we re-rented the car we had turned in three hours prior. Budget may think it is in the car rental business, but since the car was washed and gassed up when we took off again we realized it was really our pit stop and we gave thanks to our pit crew that got us out on time and refreshed.

Two hours later we were in Columbia and while it was very windy there we learned no flights there had been canceled and it looked pretty good our Charlotte flight would take off as scheduled. Still, having learned a lesson, we asked our pit crew chief in Columbia to hold our car in case we needed it again if the weather turned worse. She said she would hold it for three hours and then close it out. A couple of long lay overs in Columbia and Charlotte and we were off to Albany. However our adventure wasn't over. 30 minutes from Albany the worse turbulence any of us had previously experienced set in. The group behind us was have a ball yelling weeeee and woooo with every lift and dip. As for me, I was digging in the pouch in the back of the seat in front of me for that little white barf bag. While they were having fun pretending they were on an amuzement park ride I was breaking into one of those prepuking sweats that lets you know if it the "ride" doesn't end soon I'm going to lose it.

Breath deeply George, breath deeply I kept telling myself.

Fortunately the flight ended just as I was reaching the end of my control.

So, a little worse for wear, today's journey concluded:
4 states, 4 airports, 3 airplanes and 2 car rentals; a record Bo, Jim and I defy anyone to beat!

More next time,
George