Meriwether Lewis set the stage for the Corps of Discovery's success before one single "employee" had been hired. From the outset Lewis and Clark engendered a communications culture that brought in the right prospects, then kept morale high and increased the productivity of those eventually hired.
More important, Lewis' communication culture not only outlined the day-to-day duties of Corps member, it imbued "employees" with a sense of mission and meaning.
He was ruthless in searching for just the right recruits. Lewis wanted the strong, skilled and eager, rejecting the weak, ignorant, and unmanageable. And through properly communicating his needs, he was able to get the right people to "apply."
Prospects were told honestly about working conditions: you will be in hostile territory, surrounded by hostile people. You must rely on your own devices for food and shelter, and you could die.
They learned about benefits: "great personal rewards will be bestowed upon you by a grateful government," if you are selected.
Lewis took his "employees" one step farther: you will go, he told them, where no non-natives have gone before. You will help find the Northwest Passage. You will aid in the advancement of science, discovering new places, new species and new peoples. The mission is one of critical importance to the security of the new nation.
It was this communication of the emotional aspects, the meaning of the job that unleashed the potential of the Corps of Discovery. Today's corporate managers could learn a thing or two from Meriwether Lewis.
Let's explore how companies can tap the potential of employees by effectively communicating both the factual and the emotional aspects of their culture.
Why Communicate At All?
Since the 1940s Americans have come to expect institutions and corporations to be able to handle anything from winning an all-out war and placing a man on the moon to providing lifelong jobs. But previously infallible NASA suffered a very public failure when the shuttle Challenger exploded, killing its crew. Corporate America has suffered through turbulent times seemingly unable to deal with foreign competitors and other market forces. Needless to say, lifelong jobs are a thing of the past.
Recently, yet another mega-merger was announced that might cost as many as 20,000 people their jobs. "We were loyal to our company. Why weren't our companies loyal to us?" we ask.
A survey of corporate communications officers shows that 40 percent of them believe employee morale is fair or poor. This poor morale is an outward indication of the structural change that's continuing in our country today. We are questioning the authorities of the past - corporate and government.
In an essay, a former telephone operator for a catalog retailer summed it up, "There's a feeling among fellow employees that's hard to pin down...a detachment that comes out now as rage or despair. For years workers have had a pact with the powerful. Work hard and you'll be OK. The rich and powerful have been stewards of that promise. That promise has been broken."
Consequently, Americans are returning to a state of self-reliance, just like the men who went with Lewis and Clark. But that's not all. Americans are seeking meaning in their lives and in their work.
While business has continued to tinker with current management fads - reengineering, reorganizing, implementing TQM, investing in technology, unleashing intellectual capital - their employees have undergone a real sea change in attitude. Business, in large part, has missed the boat.
So, what must a company do now to seize the day?
Successful company executives know that their last competitive edge in the battle for market share is in their employees.
Collectively, employees make up a company's culture. When focused and directed, this culture provides a competitive advantage. Without stewardship, a negative, destructive culture can emerge.
You can simply seize control of your culture through planned, proactive, honest communications. Or, you can add positive emotion to it and truly create a unique competitive advantage.
Success Hinges On Emotional Capital
By and large, it appears that American companies are not seizing control of their culture, much less imbuing it with positive emotion.
The previously mentioned survey of corporate communications officers shows 56 percent believe employee morale has suffered due to change initiatives and downsizing. Also, 56 percent say that Generation X employees are different from other employees. An attitudinal shift not caused solely by corporate downsizing and generational swings continues to sweep through the country.
An International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) survey further confirms that business does not recognize this shift, and is using negative emotions like stress and anxiety to drive employee performance. You'll note in figure 1 that only one of the USA emotional drivers is positive.
| EMOTIONAL DRIVERS | |||
| Total | USA | CANADA | ELSEWHERE |
| Challenge | Stress | Commitment | Challenge |
| Stress | Challenge | Challenge | Determination |
| Commitment | Anxiety | Stress | Commitment |
| Figure 1 | |||
Provide positive emotion and a sense of mission to today's workers, carry on a dialogue with them, and your company will tap into a reservoir of human experience and innovation that will propel you to new heights. A survey done by PriceWaterhouseCoopers shows that passion and trust are the two most important drivers of company innovation.
Kevin Thomson, ABC and president of IABC-UK, says, "Passion is one of the strongest elements of all. It is the emotional equivalent of adrenaline - a motivator that drives us all to incredible limits."
Corporate Passion Play
How does a company bring passion to play among its employees?
The answer is simple: a clear, truthful vision, mission and set of values, as well as honest dialogue with employees.
Most companies today have a vision, a mission and a set of values they espouse that act as a road map for the organization. When it's a true reflection of the company's beliefs, it helps provide the meaning, the emotion that employees are searching for in their work.
And, this tool can be enormously powerful, allowing you to bring in the right recruits, unify employees for a common purpose, increase employee loyalty, and "inoculate" against bad news before it happens.
Remember, this company road map must be based in fact or it is worth less than the paper on which it's printed.
Bogus mission statements further demoralize and de-energize already jaded employees and can unleash negative emotions that will hurt the organization.
SAS Institute is an example of a company with a clear mission developed from today's new realities. In its mission, SAS embraces lifelong learning for employees and service that is focused on customers with improvements driven by those customers.
Employees want a company that understands they have a life outside of work, that they have a need for learning and development beyond the strictly job-related. Recognizing this, the company built a 200-acre corporate campus, landscaped to encourage outdoor leisure. Thousands of acres adjacent to the SAS campus were bought and made available for employees to buy and build their homes. A private junior and senior high has been opened on campus so parents can have lunch with their kids.
Employees are treated like university faculty and are helped by the company to pursue their own intellectual interests, as well as their job-related ones.
As a result, instead of the typical 20 percent turnover of software companies, SAS has had turnover of less than four percent. By the way, SAS pays less than accepted industry standard wages, pays no stock options, nor huge bonuses.
SAS employees are required to stay in close contact with customers and this helps them see how they fit into the bigger picture. They must write down every suggestion made by customers for product or service improvement.
Once a year, all suggestions are placed in ballot form and sent to customers for ranking. Top responses are ranked and implemented. So, employees see that business decisions are made based upon customer needs, not profit motives. SAS has a 95 percent annual renewal rate among its customers, and revenues increased from $653 million in 1996 to $871 million in 1998.
Finally, the toughest part for most companies to implement is honest, open dialogue. And it is the one that makes the most difference in the long run.
Springfield Remanufacturing is one company that has taken open, honest dialogue to a new level. CEO Jack Stack believes that when people know how they fit in and how they are evaluated, they will do the right thing. To this end, Stack launched a program that required employees to spend up to 40 percent of their time learning how to understand finances. "The tea leaves of business," Stack said, "are financials. It's much more than just looking at a simple balance sheet."
Springfield Remanufacturing spends more money each year to teach general business and finance than it does on skills training. As part of the program, the company's books are opened to every employee. Each employee is expected to think about ways the company can improve its performance. Quarterly bonuses and employee stock options are tied directly to performance improvements.
At AES, a Connecticut-based power-generating company, employees set budgetary categories. Line workers even discuss what to do with revenues generated by their operations down to determining what investments to make with idle funds.
The CEO at AES says work is fun. The "fun" has paid off in average profit increases of 23 percent annually since 1990.
In a robust economy, many companies continue to succeed in spite of themselves. But when an economic tempest blows, success comes to those who have brought meaning and honest communication to their employees.