Ralph’s has a superstore within 50 yards of our front door. The employees are hairy, sweaty, and the men are worse. Kidding aside, the place is so disengaged that customers feel like intrusions. Most of the cashiers don’t give eye contact to customers and many of them talk with other employees while practicing the mindless frenzy of entering barcodes into the system. The disengagement at the front of the store is matched by the back. The worst of it is bringing home meat, poultry, and produce that gets rotten in 24 hours.

We typically visit the store with “ingredient emergencies.” You know, guests are coming and we forgot to buy coffee. For every dollar we spend at the store next door, we spend ten dollars with the competition. We willingly drive a few miles just to find people who work with pride. Gelson’s and Whole Foods are far better. But, the best? Trader Joe’s.

But, for every dollar we spend there, we give another ten dollars towards Gelson’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s. Rather than walking 50 yards, we usually drive a few miles. Next door, asking for help is typically greeted with a blank stare, disinterest, or irritations. It is the only store where meat, poultry, and produce often get rotten in 24 hours.

At all of these locations, there is only one person responsible for the encounter:

The CEO or the business owner.

When a CEO or business owner places shareholder value and C-level income above the interest of customers and employees, mediocrity always prevails. The trance of disengagement begins at the top. But, as a neighbor and a consumer, grocery stores are special. The quality of these stores helps define our neighborhoods. A couple of months ago, I wrote a letter to the Chair of Yucaipa Companies, which owns Ralph’s as well as a number of other large chains. In the midst of writing this letter, it dawned on me that over the course of 30 years, I have not had one bad buying experience at Trader Joe’s. Here is a store that provides low prices, high-quality products and employees who treat customers as precious assets.

Joe Coulombe, the founder of Trader Joe’s, worked his way through Stanford by holding a part-time job at Rexall. After his graduation, Joe opened up a small chain of convenience stores. But, as the market changed, he saw an opportunity to build a business with unique value. His concept centered around two game-changers:

• Don’t sell other people’s stuff. Control the quality and profit through private labels.
• Develop the best talent in the grocery industry.

Today, Trader Joe’s is more than profitable, it is a cult brand with the kind of fanbase that brings in new members of the tribe every-single-day.

One the employee side, how successfully did Joe Coulombe meet the target?

Did you know the average tenure of a Trader Joe’s cashier is 19 years?

While I was writing The Workplace Engagement Solution, one of my advisors gave me this figure and it boggled my mind. But Joe built a talent philosophy that many stunted CEOs can’t seem to comprehend. The philosophy is common-sense. If you want to retain good workers give everyone a wage that allows them to meet the most basic living standards of the communities they live in. Even as the business grows, stay connected to them. For years, Joe visited every store and asked what they wanted and needed to be their best. Then, he gave it to them. Even the Hawaiian shirts came out of a conversation where employees brought up the notion of wearing fun and comfortable clothes.

I read quite a few stories about what it is like to work at Traders. But none of them summarized the culture better than one of our favorite cashiers, Jessica in Westwood. She’s always recognized us and called out to us by name. I told her about the book and asked how the company has produced such long-term loyalty. She flashed a radiant smile and said,

“19 years is for new people. I’ve been here for 24 years.”

I asked, “What do you attribute it to?”

The smile grew.

“The leadership of Trader Joe’s is amazing. Many of us call it a democracy because everyone is respected. No one pulls rank. Here’s an example. The other day, I was the second person who showed up before the doors opened. Our General Manager was already here. He was in the bathrooms mopping the floors and taking out the trash. We are a family! Everyone is expected to be generous. If I had been the first one in the door, I would have been scrubbing toilets.”

As I studied the Trader Joe’s culture, one of the words that kept coming up was generosity.

Since Joe retired, he has been succeeded by Theo Albrecht, Marc Benioff, and their current CEO, Dan Bane. Each has mirrored Joe’s ethics and values about employees and customers. There is a recent story about Dan with his decision to stop selling bananas in bunches and simply charge $.19 for one banana. They used to weigh the bananas by the pound and then package them at the warehouse. Dan watched an elderly woman walk around a pile of the bananas looking at most every package. But, she walked away without buying anything. He ran after her and asked,

“Why did you not buy any bananas?”

She said, “I’m so old I might not live long enough to eat the fifth banana.”

Trader Joe’s culture of generosity includes a story of one young man that was going through a particularly rough time in his personal life. The stress was beginning to show up at work. The manager walked up an aisle and asked that he join him behind the store. Of course, the guy assumed he was about to be reprimanded, perhaps even fired. But, the manager handed him two cartons of eggs and instructed him to throw eggs against the wall until he felt better. Every day when he worked, that manager greeted him with empathy and provided a safe place for him to live through his challenges.

I came across an article from Katherine Baker from Spoon University. She earned a graduate degree in behavioral science, found a good job in the field only to discover it made her feel stressed out and emotional all of the time. She felt she had lost the game with the “adulting thing.” She took a part-time job at Trader Joe’s to help catch up on student debt. Soon it was a full-time gig. One night, her sister asked if she liked her job at Traders. Surprisingly, she responded, “I think I do.” Katherine continued, “I found myself while mopping floors, preparing hummus samples, and putting jars of cookie butter on the shelf. I remembered who I was, got in touch with what I wanted in life, and learned how effing important it is to follow your dreams – or at the very least, find the things in life that make you happy and unapologetically pursue them.”

The most engaged workers are drawn to employers just like this. Our country’s greatest talent doesn’t take jobs where they have to smother their light just to walk through the front door. There isn’t anything elitist about giving every single worker and customer generosity.

As I finished the letter to the Chair of Yucaipa Companies, I thought of how he might respond. Within a few days, the manager of the local store called me. Panic was in her voice. She begged us to come back and gave us a gift certificate for $50.00. I asked what was she going to do to make the store a better experience. As she responded, it was clear she was not telling the truth. Perhaps she didn’t even realize that the promises coming out of her mouth were what she was supposed to tell us.

I thought of the last time I had any kind of a problem with Trader Joe’s. The only one was a problem of my own making. I have this pair of high-end sunglasses. Over the years, I’ve spent a small fortune in replacing expensive sunglasses that got lost or destroyed. I had waited until I felt I had the emotional stability to get a nice pair of glasses and keep them. One day, I left them somewhere in the Trader Joe’s store and ran to the manager’s station. They had not been turned in.

As I drove home, the phone rang. It was the manager. He said, “Mr. Harder, we just found your sunglasses! Please come back and I’ll give them to you personally.”

I laughed and said I had such low expectations at stores but that Trader Joe’s has become a special place for us.

He laughed and said, “We’re here to make everyone happy. Thank you for being such a valued customer.”

So, just what is the point?

Among my clients, there are a number of senior human capital executives. In many cases, my role is to help them find great opportunities and avoid the misery that comes from a bad fit. The two most common and vital questions include:

Who is the boss?

Does the CEO lead the culture?

If the CEO assigns culture to human resources, I suggest they either turn down the position or take it and keep their bags packed. Every single day, human capital executives are shown the door because the CEO didn’t want to be bothered with people. How can you possibly build an engaged workplace if the CEO is disengaged?

How does that work?

Has it ever worked?

Sure, I realize that is the norm.

But, how does it work?

If you have any doubts, go talk to a cashier at Trader Joe’s.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Why Do Trader Joe’s Cashiers Stay for 19 Years? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The sole purpose of a democracy is to make everyone relevant. If a CEO ever hopes to solve the employee engagement challenge, then he or she must lead the culture. For starters, how could we expect to have any improvements at all if the supreme leader isn’t engaged?

Building an engaged culture is quite possibly the most critical activity for a CEO or business owner. It might even seem counter-intuitive to do this. After all, the Jensen and Meckling papers of the 70s suggested the sole purpose of an organization is to deliver shareholder value. In so doing, CEOs got a big break from doing the best possible job. If the shareholders needed more money, we laid off a few thousand workers. Quality quickly took a back seat to cut expenses. We can see the difference at the next auto show. Cadillac, once the “Standard of the World,” builds OK cars but go sit in one and then try anything from BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, and Audi.

I just returned home from another shopping experience at Ralph’s Grocery. For every dollar we spend at the store right next to our home, we spend twenty dollars with competitors that are several miles away. Today, my cashier never looked up and never said hello. He was engaged in a highly animated conversation with a colleague in the next aisle. He regularly turned his back on the customer in front of me while trading jokes. By the time I was in front of him, he had said, “Did you find everything you wanted?” He never looked up. Then, he stopped everything he was doing and began texting on his phone!

Only the world’s most enlightened CEOs and business owners recognize that to lead a category or to have sustainable success; we have to rise and deliver shareholder value, fully engaged talent, and loyal customers.

Before dismissing the notion, there are only so many hours in the day, let’s examine one of the most well-known organizations on the face of the earth. The Executive Committee, McKinsey, and many other leading organizations recognize The US Marines as the world’s most exceptional example of leadership development.

A few years ago, one of our partners referred Major General Melvin Spiese into our program. He had just left the Marines, where he headed up training and development for 22 years. He walked in the door with all of the concerns we find in someone who grew up in one place. He arrived before the other participants and turned out to be one of the brightest people I’ve ever met. But, his disarming humility made him especially memorable. During our chat, I brought up that I was writing a book on employee engagement. He smiled and said,

“Employee engagement isn’t a problem for us at all.”

I laughed and said, “I guess disengagement would be a big issue in the middle of a war.”

“It would kill many people.”

Mel joined the Marines as a teenager. At the time, he felt he was leading a mediocre life. The young man walked into a local recruitment station drawn to the promise they would turn him into a leader. His thirst to excel fueled high performance, and he earned progressively more responsible roles.

In our program, there is a magic moment when someone’s eyes and body language indicate it is all about to come together. I could see that just a little push could become Mel’s tipping point. So, I asked him a question.

“You birth people. Is that correct?”

He nodded and said, “That is what I do.”

“Thus far, how many people have you birthed?”

“Over three-hundred thousand.”

There was a collective gasp in the room. I added,

“Who in this world would be able to have that answer? What are you going to do with this enormous gift?”

That was the moment in which Mel took flight.

His words came out with quiet force,

“Marines are not born; they are made. We cannot afford to send disengaged people into battle. The casualties would be intolerable. We teach values, a code of conduct, and living. There is no negotiation. They practice and live by our values, or they leave.”

After that weekend, Mel and I developed a business and marketing plan for Leaders Can Be Made. His organization teaches and embeds the values of engagement for everyone. They serve organizations that want to develop authentic value-driven cultures all over the world.

What are the values?

Take a moment and consider what would happen to your organization if everyone practiced:

Honor / Courage / Commitment / Dependability / Decisiveness / Enthusiasm / Initiative/ Integrity / Judgment / Justice / Knowledge / Tact / Unselfishness / and Loyalty.

Every Marine is expected to live by these values. As a result, they don’t just build leadership from high potentials; everyone is treated as a high potential with the same opportunity to shine. Developing cultures around values are common-sense, but how common is this?

Long-term excellence doesn’t necessarily require a long list of characteristics. One word can suffice. In Los Angeles, there is a legendary restaurant in the Santa Monica Mountains called Saddlepeak Lodge. It is a large and elegant former hunting lodge that features refined food, extraordinary service, and beautiful views. In the summer, we sit on the terrace looking through canyons towards the ocean. During the winter, nothing is better than having dinner next to a roaring fire. Recently, I had lunch with Ann Ehrenger, the owner of Saddlepeak, a longtime professor of Business Management at USC and Trinity College. I asked how she was able to lead a consistently magical environment. She smiled and said, “It is quite simple. Everyone is expected to practice one thing from the moment they walk in the door until they go home. They are expected to practice kindness.”

Moved by the role modeling from Ann and Mel, we developed the values of an engaged culture.

Everyone: 

Participates

No one is exempt from learning how to become more connected, more effective in managing change, and awakened to everyone around them. Being a democracy, everyone is relevant. A disengaged cashier can turn customers against your company. A careless meat department manager can kill them.

Practices Regular Self-Inquiry

Our programs have produced great success by helping people learn how to access and organize their truth. In so doing, they make meaningful changes in their professional lives. In a world where change accelerates every single day, we must develop the capacity to learn new skills, let go of old ideas, and reinvent themselves. Our clients learn how to use 5-minutes of self-inquiry to get far more out of the day ahead of them.

Pursues Change Before Change Impacts Them

For most of us, personal change is uncomfortable. We find the consequences of avoiding personal change has led to a culture where about 50% of America’s workers now characterize themselves as “underemployed.”

Demonstrates and Practices Enthusiasm for Learning and Growth. 

Active learners not only stay ahead of change; they make the best changes happen. Today’s active learner adds value to the intelligence of their employer, and they will always be the last if ever, to get laid-off.

Tells the Truth and Practices Transparency

The world has reached a tipping point where everything that we do, say, and hide comes to light. If that news is really bad, it spreads like wildfire.

Live with nothing to hide. Run our organizations in the light.

Practices Courage

Develop a culture where we reward others for practicing courage when they are frightened. Build an environment where taking action is far nobler than “flying below the radar.” Someone with courage will take immediate action while someone who is working on becoming fearless is on their 5th self-help book.

In Summary

Let’s be clear. I am not on the warpath with shareholder value!

All of us ought to have issues with leadership that creates this one value while growing mediocrity with the talent and the customer experience.

On the other hand, isn’t it time we tell the truth and highlight the fact that if a CEO let’s customer relationships suffer and employees to stagnate, he or she isn’t doing their job.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Want Employee Engagement? Join the Marines! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The importance of American labor could be summarized in how we won World War II. Late to the fight, our workers played just as much of a role as soldiers by producing unprecedented quantities of ships, guns, planes, and vehicles. As the war concluded, workers had indeed, earned our deep respect.

In the 50s, we shifted our manufacturing capabilities by building the best cars and products in the world. We gave Veterans “first-in-line” access to jobs, and we created millions of homes at ridiculously low price-points. Through the sheer value of America’s talent, we became the world’s superpower.

In 1976, two famed economists at Harvard published a paper that would change virtually every aspect of running a public company. It is our collective illiteracy about this event that causes so many people to blame others without actually knowing how we got here. Michael Jensen and William Meckling published the now-legendary paper,

“Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure.”

In it, they argued that corporations needed to align the interests of manage­ment and shareholders. To put this bluntly, they proposed the sole purpose of a corporation is to deliver and grow shareholder value.

For CEOs and shareholders, this was as healthy as leaving a ton of biscuits in a room with two dogs. For corporate executives, stock-based com­pensation became the alignment mechanism of choice. Consequently, their incomes skyrocketed. In the 1970s, CEOs of large, publicly traded companies earned less than $1 million in today’s dollars. Today, that average has grown to $11.4 million. The new model motivates CEOs to incessantly focus on stock value rather than enhancing the real, longer-term performance of the company.

During the past 40+ years, the entire investment market shifted from long-term investment in building organizations and markets to realizing as much out of stock value as possible and to reach that in the shortest period of time. Investment banking turned into a multi-trillion-dollar industry. CEOs and hedge fund leaders became the foundation for how we dealt with workers in large organizations. With stock value becoming the number-one pursuit, American businesses and CEOs traded the long view for volatility, thus shifting the dynamic interests between capital and labor. As providers of capital push CEOs for greater and quicker returns, cutting back on labor is now the easiest way to signal they are ad­dressing corporate financial performance.

Many workers were quite supportive of the American dream. But during the last 40 years, the average income has stagnated while hourly compensation dropped. Workers witness venture capitalists taking advantage of financial deregulation to buy companies, take out loans on the assets, and pay huge dividends to themselves. Many of these ac­quisitions went bankrupt as employees lost their jobs, health insurance, and pensions. These financial barons are often celebrated and admired, but it has also resulted in mass income inequality at an alarming trend. Was this done intentionally? I believe it was done blindly.

Many of America’s workers have watched their job, and financial security goes up in smoke. Anger, contempt, and cynicism turned into raging fires as they read stories of greedy CEOs backdating stock options and pushing the envelope to unethical, and sometimes illegal, degrees. But perhaps it was amorality that angered them the most. In many organi­zations, the underlying message was that when needed, workers mat­tered. However, the cycles of hiring and laying people off reached such dizzying heights that we now have a labor force that views work as a temporary assignment.

The single-minded pursuit of building shareholder value has weakened the strength of our country. There was a time when shareholders, employees, product quality, and customer satisfaction were equal. Sadly, by making shareholders primary winners of an organization’s profits, we now produce large quantities of cheap stuff. We often treat customers by examining how much irritation they will put up with before moving on.

As a post-war country, Cadillac was the “Standard of the World.” But after the Theory was embraced, GM began pulling every dime that could be turned over to management and shareholders. Materials infamously got cheaper. Instead of innovation, Cadillac built the Seville on a Chevy Nova frame and charged as much as an E-class Mercedes. Lee Iacocca famously revived Chrysler with the “K” car while his Pinto turned out to be more threatening than a hitman.

Everything became cheaper. The results can be experienced by sitting in any Cadillac model and then moving over to an Audi, BMW, Lexus or Mercedes. The late Lee Iacocca celebrated the fixation on shareholder value by building such notable products as the “K” car and the Pinto.

Today, our country faces a variety of significant challenges. Underemployment impacts half of our workers. Accelerating change is kicking far too many people to the curb. In the last 2 years, we have witnessed California’s utility companies cutting expenses so close to the bone that hundreds of people have lost their lives to fires. Even in the face of bankruptcy, they have paid their shareholders fortunes and kept millions in bonuses for themselves. The state’s governor Gavin Newsom is courting Warren Buffet to buy the land rights to our utilities. Perhaps this is a good time to understand that Warren never takes shortcuts. He rigorously upholds bringing integrity to every aspect of organizational practice.

I do not believe that change will come from anyone who is benefiting from the Theory. We will also not break out of the current state if most people don’t understand how we got here. Instead, But, I have great faith in our children and young people because they will not put up with this crap.

A few years ago, I flew into Calgary to deliver a keynote on employee engagement. My time in the flight was invested in reading the biographies of the CEOs and business owners attending the event. The vast majority of them were in petroleum. At the time, delays in the Keystone Pipeline and a downturn in the global market had turned Calgary into something of a ghost town.

At the beginning of my presentation, I said, “While flying into your beautiful city, I studied your backgrounds and your organizations. Since many of you are laying off thousands of employees, perhaps we could discuss self-change rather than employee engagement.”

The response was enthusiastic. Later, during Q & A, I suggested the possibility that many of the leaders in that conference would do well by investing in the future rather than waiting for the past to spring back to life. For example, we have many energy firms making that shift because they take the future seriously. But the room turned a bit dark when I said, If we don’t progress, our children will do it. Because they will not put up with this.”

Isn’t it time to declare Theory of the Firm a failure?

In terms of excellence, it has turned into a shortcut for reaching mediocrity.

Ironically, most of the people upholding and protecting the Theory of the Firm are in their 60s to 80s.

Perhaps our children actually are here to save the world.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post How Shareholder Fixation Built a Culture of Mediocrity appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

For so many CEOs and human capital executives, employee disengagement continues to undermine targets of the business plan, customer loyalty, productivity, and retention. To move beyond the problem, we must identify how the past continues to haunt work culture today.

The Industrial Revolution has had an iron grip on our culture for the past three centuries. Clearly this era was over by the end of the 20th century. Even Y2K now seems like a distant and quaint memory. The changes in front of us collide with the beliefs about work that our parents, grandparents, and many employers offered up as absolute truth.

Prior to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, a change took place at a far more glacial pace. People spent most of their time and money growing or buying food. Making even one garment by hand took days. Industry resided in cottages. Child mortality was so high that many people had large numbers of children hoping that one or two would survive. Education was reserved for landowners, nobility, and the religious elite. The rich and powerful did not pay taxes while poor people paid rent and taxes.

The first great turning point in the world of work took place almost three hundred years ago. At that time, the British called the shots for how the rest of our world functioned. It was the most studied country on the face of the earth. In 1733, an English watchmaker named John Kay invented the simple machine called the Flying Shuttle. Its purpose was to improve the productivity of weaving. One person was now able to do the work of three. Fueled by riches, this innovation tipping point quickly turned into a tidal wave. Water and steam power moved the textile industry into high gear. The first inexpensive process for the mass production of steel was invented. We moved from the scarcity of food to storehouses of abundant supplies. Now producing more goods than any other country, England needed to find ways to get these products to other countries. Roads were built and boats got steam engines. Rails were laid. Landowners became industrialists. The banking industry was invented to grease the skids and the UK developed a world of consumers.

The Industrial Revolution represented an intoxicating leap forward in the evolution of civilization. The architecture behind this revolution introduced goods and services that were previously available to only the wealthy. In a parallel to today’s work landscape, the Industrial Revolution resulted in the handing out of pink slips to virtually every worker from the previous era, but work didn’t go away, it simply changed. This phenomenon is also taking place today. As old structures and dynamics go away, we need to become more fluent in seeing where new structures and dynamics emerge, because emerge, they always do. The difference? Three hundred years ago, it often took decades to change. Today, it can happen in a matter of days.

The old revolution also developed an unquenchable thirst for workers. Industrialists developed a recruitment pitch filled with standards and beliefs that haunt us today:

“If you come to work for us, we will give you survival and predictability.” 

Over time, humans proved to put up with a lot in order to have that. The message played to our worst fears.

To most of those working on farms, hunting for food, or dealing with the day-to-day uncertainty of keeping that cobbler shop in business, the pitch sounded really good. Human capital nourished the machine, which took center stage in our work. Parents, schools, organized religion, and governments prepared a new labor force that fit into the assembly lines, plugging bolts into holes. A new economy grew based on making large quantities of stuff. This worked for several hundred years. And, as with all personal or cultural advancements, there was also a price.

Predictability and survival didn’t just become two in a series of standards. They became the standard. Although these standards made perfect sense at the time, consider how outdated they are now within our modern times. The fixation on predictability and survival dismisses joy, creativity, passion, engagement, full living, and connectedness to others. It often keeps us from new learning. Most profoundly, the old standards obscure the birthright of every man, woman, and child, which is to find and pursue what we were born to do. The growing awareness of this is also one of the seeds fueling today’s discord with work. But, there was another great price we paid.

In Critical Path, Buckminster Fuller quantified predictions he had been making since the mid-1930s. He warned the world that if we did not find ways to either eliminate or remove the poisons generated from fossil fuels and chemicals, the world would become uninhabitable by the turn of the century. Mr. Fuller must have died with a great deal of frustration because very few people listened to him. Most did not think about these issues because repetition produces a trancelike state. Fitting in, tending to our workstations, going through the routine became the mass trance of the Industrial Revolution. Most were happy for progress. Wages were small. Long hours were filled with back-breaking and repetitive work. Safety standards were appalling.

In many factories, children were sent in to tend machines because the spaces were so small. If someone was injured or killed, others were waiting in line to step in and replace them. In fact, some of the laws passed during the early days of the Industrial Revolution indicate just how barbaric many employers were during that era. For example, the Factory Act of 1819 limited the work of children to 12 hours a day. And in 1833, children under the age of 9 were banned from working in the textile industry and 10- to 13-year-olds were limited to a 48-hour workweek.

Ironically, England’s innovation also led to it losing its grip on the world. In the early days of the revolution, British leadership did its best to protect the country’s manufacturing technology. But that progress opened up channels to the rest of the world. As mass-production spread throughout the globe, other countries not only became more powerful, they turned into competitors. It wasn’t long before every developed nation was playing the same game. And for the next 250 years, the Industrial Revolution dictated how we lived, consumed, worked, competed, and got educated. As the promise of predictability and survival evolved, we added various employee benefits: vacation plans, a retirement plan for when we grew old, medical coverage if we got sick, and so on. The most talented embraced it all and worked their way up the proverbial “career ladder.”

On the shadow side, our ability to build stuff also fueled the bloodiest wars in the history of humankind. We leveraged wars with new technology and a powerful capability to snuff life out in dramatic fashion. This led to the most awesome victories, but at a terrible price. But as we returned from world wars, manufacturing supremacy led to jobs for life, a comfortable middle-class living, and what was, for many, a comfortable routine. We worked, we saved, and we retired. The Industrial Revolution had successfully disrupted and transformed a culture that had stayed relatively the same for thousands of prior years.

In 1943, England dropped its next disruptive bomb on the world of work. A British engineer named Tommy Flowers demonstrated the first programmable computer to a stunned, skeptical room of military leaders. He developed this machine to decrypt German military code. It worked amazingly well. Ten of these “Colossi” were completed and used to gather intelligence. On June 5, 1944, a courier handed Eisenhower a note summarizing a Colossus decrypt. It confirmed that Hitler wanted no additional troops to move to Normandy. Moments later, he announced, “We go in tomorrow.” The rest is history. The first computer may have actually played a bigger role in ending World War II than the first atomic bomb.5

Surprisingly, British leaders had the Colossi dismantled after the war. But, word of its power had gotten out. By 1946, the Eniac was invented and completed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania. The world’s first digital computer occupied 1,800 square feet, used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighed almost 50 tons, and had less than half the power of a smartphone.

Whereas our first work revolution took hundreds of years, a new one was quietly birthed that day. This innovation would take just 50 years to completely change the way we live, work, think, learn, grow, and transform. The original wave from this technology would grow in ferocity and depth, disrupting virtually every work model we had developed over 300 years. In the mid-1990s, the wave made landfall and started to wipe out all of the promises and ideals of the industrial workplace.

Today, ever-accelerating technology is wiping out task-based work, dismantling mind-numbing jobs, and creating a new subclass of the underemployed currently hovering at 48%. If the numbers are accurate, a big portion of our remaining workers is in jobs that offer little meaning and enthusiasm.

Much of today’s turmoil emerges from millions of workers looking towards the future of work and having grave difficulty in finding just how they are going to make a living.

America’s political leadership, on both sides of the fence, is failing us.

Our educational institutions are not teaching people how to change.

Too many CEOs and business owners believe that transforming their worker’s relationship towards work is “not their job.”

Right now, only a handful of enlightened CEOs are hiring for potential and teaching their people how to grow.

We need more of them! Because if not them, who?

Technology is giving us freedom from tasks. As we accelerate into the future, the question isn’t, “How will I get another job, just like the numbing job I hated?” It is, “How will I use my freedom to live a life of purpose, of making our customers more engaged, of helping my colleagues find the support they need?”

I point towards business because it is doing a far better job than our government. They are doing more to improve civil rights, develop equal pay, teach people to progress, and help our world become a better place to live. I know that the culture of outrage, the need to blame others, and obsession over dysfunction will probably respond. But, before you contact me, please go online and study organizations like Salesforce, Trader Joe’s, Adobe, Marriot, Southwest Airlines, and many more.

This is the time to stop studying evil plots, corrupt organizations, crime-riddled politics, and chanting, “They took my job.” *

*Yes, this is influenced by South Park.

We are living during the biggest restructuring of work in well over 300 years. There has never been a better time to find work that we love. It has never been easier to start a business. We are in a time where our lifestyle and our work can live in harmony.

Our country needs as many business leaders, educators, and yes, politicians to step away from the culture of outrage and tell us how to change. I know this is possible because my business has helped thousands of people change their lives in just two days. We need more leaders to step forward and show us how to do that.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

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The Modern Workplace

How many of us are conscious enough to be excited about trading in the traditional sense of security for perpetual growth?

In essence, this is what the new workplace offers, as well as demands.

For the vast majority of us, real change is a frightening prospect. For example, when we began our programs in 1990, most of our participants were pursuing one significant professional change. After making that transition, many would tell me, “I’m glad that is over.” But it wasn’t over. The world just became faster and faster. Now, imagine how much the national workplace will improve if we develop a thirst for learning and growth within ourselves and throughout our organizations.

It will require us to reinvent, learn, unlearn, and relearn in shorter periods. When we ask or order our employees to “snap out of it” or “get used to it,” how can most of them comprehend how to do that? Yet many leaders continue to display the “do it or else” tactic only pushes more “going through the motions.”

Similarly, any notion that people should somehow be skilled at continuous personal change is far-fetched. Organizations, realistically, must develop their workers to not only understand change but to learn how to change themselves continuously.

But let’s get real. There isn’t a corporate budget in the world to pay for the consulting fees it would take to do this. Yet, when we move the entire process in-house where it belongs, the financial investments are minimal, especially when we factor in the increases in performance and engagement that will ensue. It can be hard for CEOs to do this when much of their time is being used by cleaning up the problems of a disengaged workforce.

The purpose of employee engagement isn’t about working harder or even being more productive. Engagement is being awake, interested, enthused, empathetic, helpful, and growing rather than being stagnant. An engaged national workforce is the single most crucial target for America’s future. In all probability, that will never happen because of our government. It will happen when employers realize that building their own highly engaged workforce is a far better strategy than laying everyone off when they become obsolete.

We live next to one of the country’s largest grocery stores. But, we only shop there when times we need an item right now. Disinterest and surliness is the norm. Not only do we encounter a bad attitude at the front of the house, but we have also had to bring back rotten food routinely. So, we drive 5 miles to shop at a store with higher prices. We also go to Trader Joe’s where the average tenure of a cashier is 18 years. I’ve written about Trader Joe’s, Southwest Airlines, Cornerstone on Demand as cultures where the CEO leads engagement, employees are grown to succeed, and support to each other breeds support to the customer and shareholders.

We have been delivering group engagement programs for years. When people find out what their peers most want to accomplish when they understand the challenges that are in that person’s way, the entire dynamic changes.

Germany, Japan, China, and other nations are role models in preparing their citizens for the future of work. Instead of assuming that an obsolete worker is a worthless expense, they routinely invest in keeping employees up-to-date with their skills.

In the United States, I believe our future rests in individuals that embody the American spirit, the ones that do not wait for others to help them. It is also emerging from the organizations that are already building such workers. In all cases, the CEO leads the culture. These CEOs mindfully grow talent, and mentorship is a way of life.

For the leaders that don’t get it, untruthful sales pitch no longer fool premium talent. The transparency revolution will see to that. It is time for our country to start treating the most exceptional talent pool on earth for what it is.

It is our most valuable asset.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Why Does Employee Engagement Rely on Self-Change Skills? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

These skills include:

• Drawing Healthy Attention to Oneself and Giving the Same to Others
• Becoming a Skilled and Enthusiastic Active Learner
• The Ability to Ask for the Right Kind of Help
• Practicing Regular Self-Assessment and Self-Inquiry
• The Ability to Recognize and Step Out of “The Trance”

In essence, I’m proposing that as the workplace speeds up, the necessity to fluidly and harmoniously connect with others. Many of us have complicated histories with attention. Some grew up in circumstances where attention was physically and emotionally violent. The majority of us come from average families where everyone communicated for 7 minutes a day, with half of that time devoted to correcting and arguing. The same family goes on to watch Television 4 hours a day, plus screen time with personal devices averaging 3 hours a day. In such environments, how is anything getting done? Certainly, we are not teaching children how to pursue rather than run from attention.

The vast majority of educational institutions don’t teach the skills of connectivity. So, if we are not getting them at home, how will we develop meaningful connectivity?

Making sure that our talent has connectivity is one of the single most time-saving and financially valuable ways to build an engaged workforce.

How does daily learning impact today’s workers? Many companies will only hire active learners. The candidates bring intelligence to their employers, they usually don’t get laid off, and they are far more promotable.

So what is this nasty-sounding characteristic, “The Trance?”

As humans, all of us fall into a trance. Sometimes, it is brought about by repetitive and mind-numbing work. For many of the underemployed, the trance occurs because they are preoccupied with fear. Cynicism, contempt, aimlessness, and resignation actively protect trances. If you have any doubts that the trance has become a huge deal, count the number of times you have to get out of someone’s way because they are not looking where they are going. Pay attention to the cashiers and packers. How many of them make eye contact? Drive through the City of Los Angeles! Every other “car” is a 6,000-pound sport-utility. The person at the wheel is working on the cell phone and barking orders to the kids. These are the individuals that become so mindless in how they use devices; they get sucked their screens and disappear.

Yesterday, my article on engagement and leadership was published. Here is the link:

In it, I pointed out that it simply isn’t worth the irritation to implement any engagement program if the CEO or business owner doesn’t lead the culture. How can we possibly produce engaged talent if the CEO isn’t engaged?

Pressing mid-managers to get more productivity out of their workers isn’t engagement; it is simply trying to frighten people into working harder.

Engagement only works as a democratic process, where everyone is involved in learning to become engaged, not only with their roles in an organization but also engaged with their careers. The most engaged cultures that I work with center much of their talent strategy on growing workers. When someone gets a promotion, the most common question is, “Where do you want to grow after this?”

The purpose of democracy is to make everyone relevant. For example, how can an organization produce engagement if the $3million development budget is set aside for the high-potentials? When we allocate funds, giving equal treatment to everyone is one of the most important steps towards developing an awakened and enthusiastic culture.

Wouldn’t you want to work there?

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Why Does Employee Engagement Require a Democracy? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

It takes just a bit of common sense to define why typical engagement initiatives produce single-digit improvements or fail altogether. You will probably recognize the pattern:

1. The CEO or business owner realizes that disengagement is impacting profits and customer satisfaction. He or she walks down the hall to human resources and tells them to fix the problem.
2. The human resources executive launches an employee engagement initiative. Still, the employees look past his or her shoulder to the CEO for cues, and they see “business as usual.”
3. An employee survey is issued. Quite often, employees feel patronized by questions that seem to be asking, “How can you do more for us?”
4. The feedback is summarized and shared, usually succeeding in making managers feel even more inadequate to solve the problem.
5. We send the managers to a retreat center to become better leaders. They return more “enlightened” to employees who respond, “So what?”

Rinse and repeat.

Every year, organizations spend well over a billion dollars in attempts to fix employee engagement problems. But, global disengagement figures persist at about 87%. The challenge has built a consulting category that treats disengagement as a chronic illness, forever in need of their services. Progress creates problems for all of us. Right now, there are pharmaceutical companies actively engaged in dialogues about how to cure cancer without killing the company.

So, how do we cure disengagement without killing the consultant?

We will cure engagement if a CEO or business owner refuses to lead their own cultures. Human resource executives ought to keep their bags packed if they are expected to fix the problem on their own.

Most anyone today can agree that we are in a fundamental restructuring of work. Being able to change oneself requires new skills and practice. Rapid personal change can only happen with increased connectivity with others, the ability to pay attention to everyone, and the willingness to ask for help.

From a time perspective, work is our most prominent relationship. In the almost 30 years that we have helped people transform that relationship, we have learned that an individual has to define the work they love. They have to learn the skills that produce fluid, skillful, and quick connections with the right people. If they hope to stay ahead of obsolescence, they must become active learners.

When any organization rolls up its sleeves high enough to solve engagement, everyone has to be engaged.

Today isn’t about trying to convey everything in my book, The Workplace Engagement Solution (CareerPress). Instead, I will share my suggestions from the front and the end of the book.

The beginning? Until the CEO or business owner takes charge of your commitment to building an engaged workplace, don’t waste your time.

When he or she does make that commitment, the only cost-effective way to reach a fully engaged workplace is by establishing strongly effective mentoring cultures where we demonstrate and teach every employee to develop the ability to change, to help others, connect fluidly with others, and to enjoy their entrance into the future of work.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Workplace Engagement Programs Start here or don’t start at all! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

“We die. Perhaps that is the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

So how is our society doing in terms of language representing the measure of our lives?

I believe that most of us have challenges with our words. Many of the most articulate people that I know automatically insert words that undermine all they want to accomplish. Some even use ineffective phrases that work against their success. For example, when someone has been given a compliment for doing great work, they respond, “Oh, it was nothing?” What do they mean? I find most often it is, “don’t look at me, don’t pay attention, don’t judge me.” They have just lowered the probability of being complemented again.

Do you know what I mean?

Does that make sense to you?

I’ll try to get the point across and hope this will work.

Um. Maybe I know what you’re thinking.

At least, I’m supposed to know.

Honestly, ah, to be honest, maybe I want a raise.

No problem?

Sorry.

Really?

You shouldn’t have.

The words that we use directly impact our success or failure in the world. In our culture, we often use ineffective words because we are too lazy to do better. Or, we are quite uncomfortable with leaving any space in our narrative. And yet, the greatest musicians in the world pay just as much attention to the value of space rather than using only notes.

Years ago, I had a colleague who began pestering me about using the word, “utterly.” It wasn’t enough to just be sad. I wanted everyone to know I was utterly sad. He suggested that every time I used the word utterly, I was to give him $10.

I laughed and said, “I’ll agree to that if you give me $10 every time you say, “Amazing.”

By the end of the month, we were even in handing each other money. However, both of us had stopped using these fallback words.

Before we open the doors to a new 12-step meeting, let’s review some of the worst junk words and phrases in play today:

Kind of

Conveys lack of conviction, confusion, aimlessness.

Try

Don’t count on me. I’ll try saving you from getting run over by a car.

Maybe

Don’t count on me again. “Maybe I’ll come with you?”

Sort of

You haven’t decided what it is at all. Is this “sort of” healthy? Like I think that “sort of healthy” is one box from Donut Princess rather than two.

Can I

We love this mind bleep. You are looking at a Matcha Tea Donut at Princess Donut and you are saying, “Can I have this Matcha Donut?” Dude, is the guy boxing donuts going to tell you, “No you cannot?”

Hope

This is my #1 most disliked word in the human equation. The only time this word might have a bit of value is when we are at the very bottom of the human condition.

Hope is antimatter to action. When we hope things will change, we wait.

On the other hand, optimism is the belief that our actions will cause improvement.

Supposed to

The only purpose of the word “supposed” is to indicate that wherever we are, it is wrong.

You know

Now and then, I will be working with a client on a life-changing and critically important presentation. At one point, I will ask, “You have used the phrase ‘you know’ 26 times since we began. What are we supported to know?”

Junk words are like junk food. Use a favorite once in a great while, just for a deeply satisfying break from being articulate.

Um or Ah

This one indicates just how unsure we are. Or it makes those of us who are sure, appear unsure.

Like

My partner and I were recently having lunch at a fairly upscale restaurant in Beverly Hills. Two young women came to the porch and asked for a menu. One said to the other, “Ew, these entrees are over $20. Like, all I wanted was a salad.”

The problem with like is that it indicates there was a better word that you could not remember.

Honestly or To be Honest

When someone repeatedly says this, then honesty seems like it is the exception rather than the rule.

No Problem

With today’s rapidly dwindling brick and mortar retail war, the sole purpose of a retail worker is to produce a superior customer experience. So why is it that we thank someone and they respond, “No problem?”

Really? Thank you for delivering my $100,000 car. No Problem. It is such a pleasure to work with you. No problem.

No problem takes whatever enthusiasm someone has been given and crumbles the whole experience down to nonchalance.

The most common reason we use junk words is fear. We are afraid to be a man or woman of few words. But, men and women of power, whose style is to use few words, do not fill in the spaces with junk. Consequently, whenever they speak, everyone listens.

Want to get over it?

Have someone close to you make a deal. Anytime you use a junk word in a sentence, you are to give them $10. This can be used to buy lunch, give to a charity, whatever is designated. By the time most of us have paid out $50, we have changed the pattern. However, even if you pay out $500, it is well worth the price because people will listen to you more carefully. More people will respect what you say. And, you will eventually realize you have become more skilled and more confident in how you present yourself.

And that, my friends, will be utterly amazing! 

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post The Words & Phrases That Cut Your Power in Half! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Then, everything changed. Academics and business authors suggest that we get rid of them. But, the need for mid-managers is stronger than ever. It is the role of the manager that must be changed, transformed, and reimagined. Just be prepared for the pushback when you suggest this to a mid-manager. Most likely, their response will be, “I’m too busy.”

“But, the very future of your workers depends on your reinvention.”

“I’ll pencil it in over lunch…at my desk.”

Advancing technology is like a tornado from Oz blowing task work away. In its aftermath, we find entire categories of workers who need to change. This is why our managers must change, transform and reimagine their careers. As for employers, this is the time to carefully question if laying off the very people who know the most about your frontline is such a good idea. In reality, the mid-managers ought to be the first target for learning how to change and learning how to show others how to change as well.

As technology accelerates it is giving us freedom. The most cynical or contempt-filled reader will respond, “What, freedom from having an income?” But, it is giving us freedom from monotonous tasks, quotas, and other forms of mind-numbing work. The kinds of new work that is coming towards us are more interesting, visionary, and impactful in the world. The greatest social entrepreneurs are using technology to change the world. For example, Peter Diamandis says, “The best way to become a billionaire is to help a billion people.” Consider how lame that statement would have been just 20 years ago.

As the value of task work and its workers plummet, the work to be done is radically different. Instead of tasks, an endless stream of new jobs and roles is emerging. The new workplace will reward those with any or a group of these skills: Creativity, narrative, accountability, empathy, engagement, solving problems, influencing others, sales, and managing the “big picture.”

Robotics and software have been game-changers with blue-collar work. De-monetized services such as LinkedIn and Facebook are impacting millions of white-collar workers. But, Artificial Intelligence will cause disruption as we have never witnessed before. Wealth managers will need to become curators. Medical research will exponentially find more cures for disease. Higher education will be available without paying a cent.

The most valued middle managers will be the ones that are only too happy to let go of tasks so they can develop their employer’s greatest asset, its people. They will be responsible for helping others to embrace active learning, develop new life skills, and to use new forms of technology that exponentially grow personal productivity.

Don’t trust the senior executives, the academics, and the authors of self-help books to propose a solution. Even the Harvard Business Review, characterizes mid-managers as the most disengaged of all workers. They are overworked, undervalued, and the most at-risk during layoffs.

The rock stars are quite different. We recently finished an executive development project with one of the most brilliant scientists in the world. Until we met, his value as an individual contributor had received global recognition. But, in one promotion, he was responsible for hundreds of his company’s best and brightest scientists.

During our first meeting, I said,

“Up until today, you have been judged and promoted because you are a brilliant scientist. But, from this moment forward, your value will be measured in how you inspire hundreds of brilliant scientists to change the world.”

His eyes lit up. The new mission became the centerpiece in how he wanted to grow. Now, he engages with his direct reports with the central mission of rewarding high personal performance with breakthroughs in their careers. He is teaching his direct reports to harness the needs and expectations of their workers with growth, progress and other forms of success.

The greatest managers know the needs and expectations of every person that reports to them. They take the time to harness those needs into energy and action. A great manager will conspire to create a culture that people love because love pushes us to perform way outside of our comfort zones. Great managers teach active learning, influence, and help their highest performers connect with game-changing mentors. They not only make it safe to ask for help, they often reward employees who do.

Unfortunately, frenzy breeds thoughtlessness. In so many organizations, the CEO doesn’t think of the impact that disengaged managers have on their profits and customers. Many don’t realize that disengaged managers are actually dooming the CEOs future.

How do we get started? We begin by elevating the value of our time. After we deliver an engagement program to an intact team, most everyone wants to sustain the transformation. That happens when they use small rituals that produce mindfulness.

One of them is to answer a few questions at the beginning of each morning. Instead of reading e-mails and listening to voicemails, they take 5-minutes to answer a few questions that organizes their priorities.

Here is an example:

• Who most needs my attention and inspiration?
• What is the most valuable problem to solve today?
• Describe today’s ideal blend of tactical and strategic work.
• How can I best sell our ideas and solutions?
• How can I best take care of myself?
• What can I do to create greater engagement and effectiveness with our team?
• Describe one really valuable action that might require your courage.

It takes five minutes.

What is the point?

In the years ahead, technology isn’t taking away our value. It is up to us to make the kind of practical and visionary changes that elevate our value, the allow us to change the world, and to help the people around us.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Mid-Managment, Engagements Final Frontier! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

I learned from Bob that the sole biological purpose of fear is to take action. When we are finished taking action, the only healthy way to shut down our alarm system is to seek comfort from someone. Our children teach this to us all of the time. They get frightened, we pick them up, the alarm mechanism shuts down, and they move on with their lives.

We never outgrow that. But, we can override the pattern at a very big price.

For example, we are in the midst of the greatest restructuring of work since the printing revolution. As advancing technology frees us from task work, Artificial Intelligence will provide us with the power to exponentially grow our capacity to impact the world around us. But, we have a growing crisis around taking action. At the very time that we need leaders to tell us what to do, we are given promises that more jobs are coming our way and someone is going to fix it. Promises and hope promote inaction. Far too many of our workers are not taking the kind of right action to make use of the opportunities at hand. Instead, their underemployment grows and the fear no longer produces action, it is met with the need to stay in comfort.

Change, on a fundamental and personal level, is frightening! I’m at the early stages of reinventing our business model and platform. It is a “go big or go home” initiative. Whenever I’m at the beginnings of a big personal change, I usually look for a sign. When we seriously began this reinvention of the business, I got a call from a client. She asked if I would like to have Katherine Graham’s desk. Yes, that Katherine, the one who took over The Washington Post when her husband died. The one who risked losing the family business over Watergate and the Pentagon Papers. Today, I lead our new initiative at the desk of someone who led one of the most terrifying events in publishing history.

While the greatest superpowers prepare their workforce for the future, our country, the one that has the greatest amount to lose, has developed a collective pathology where far too many of us are seeking comfort before action. It isn’t the healthy comfort of reaching out to others or getting help. It is the comfort of checking out, eating a layer cake, watching too much Television, hiding, acting out, running away, and using technology to check-out rather than empower us.

Right now, 48% of America’s workers characterize themselves as “underemployed.” This means holding multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads or holding onto obsolete jobs with the fear they will not find anything better.

This behavioral wrestling match between action or comfort shows up in workers that hold onto unfulfilling jobs in shrinking industries. It shows up in middle-class parents who’ve embraced the role models provided by European royalty. Discussions about work and responsibility are put off for so long that adolescence is delayed until middle age. Today, our country consumes over 80% of the world’s legal and illegal drugs. We consume, on average, 46 pounds of corn syrup, 170 pounds of sugar per year. We average over 5 hours of screen time per day. The average family watches over 4 hours of television per day. If there are any doubts about our country sinking into a national trance, go to a big grocery store and note how many times you have to jump out of the way of someone who isn’t looking where they are going. On the streets of Los Angeles, we have to avoid people driving 5,000-pound sport-utes as they text, work on their hair, yell at the kids, schedule more meetings, or take more calls from their employers.

How can our country create a meaningful U-Turn?

If any of this is relatable, don’t wait!

Don’t wait for our leaders to take charge.

Don’t wait for our educational system to modernize.

Don’t wait for your boss to tell you to reinvent yourself and leave.

Don’t wait to learn new skills.

But especially, don’t wait to find the work that you love. Because courage is in order. Courage means we take action whether or not we are frightened. Courage moves us to change. In observing thousands of people make vastly better career changes, I find that courage usually doesn’t happen when we are ambivalent. The most reliable fuel for change is to select work that we love and to learn more about the work that we love.

We cannot afford to wait. Here is just one example. Over the years, hundreds of attorneys have come through our programs. We cannot find one law school that requires sales and business development training to get a degree. But, if we take two equally capable associates only one differentiator determines which one becomes a partner. Of course, it hinges on their ability to bring in business. In large law firms, hundreds of thousands of associates made good money performing high-end tasks. Then, LegalZoom offered the consumer cheap and quick alternatives for legal task work. As a result, today’s large law firms require around $2Million to be considered as an associate. Many of those white-collar workers are in firms that resemble sweatshops, making $30-50/hour.

Technology is offering all of us freedom. It is offering the assembly line worker options like going to a German Plant where workers are constantly being trained to do more creative and accountable work. 3-D printing is already allowing former blue-collar workers into business ownership that provide parts for collectible cars, customized products, and countless other products. Artificial Intelligence is already giving entrepreneurs the capacity to leverage their gifts into world-changing initiatives. We will not see these opportunities if we are “tranced out.”

I don’t believe in fearlessness. In the self-help book market, virtually every pioneer who promised we could become fearless turned out to be a criminal to con artist. Napoleon Hill, the grandfather of self-help, set-up shop in town after town, only having to flee because the police were about to arrest him. His first book was about the secrets of success given to him by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. He never met Mr. Carnegie.

Success stories such as Ellen DeGeneres provide far more authentic human role modeling. When Ellen got her first TV show, a journalist asked what it was like to become so successful. She responded, “This elevates my terror to a whole new level.”

Fear is not our enemy, it is the dance partner to action.

If we want to be the country that wins in the game of change than it is time for all of us to find our way forward. It doesn’t really matter if we are motivated by fear or that we are excited about an unprecedented opportunity to do what we love and what we want.

There was an old parable about God telling Lot to take his family and leave Sodom and Gomorrah. They packed up and fled. The only person to look back was his wife and she turned into a pillar of salt.

I am not a religious person. But, the story is quite apt in demonstrating that for those of us who wait, look back, and become obsolete, the consequences are not attractive. But, for those of us who take the initiative, including the fears, and define our role in the new world of work, the future is bright indeed.

Meaning, purpose, a sense of legacy, impact, contribution, progress, solutions, empathy, accountability, engagement, personal growth, commitment, autonomy, these are just a few of the characteristics underpinning the emerging world of work. They seem to be so much more than monotony, repetition, clocking in & clocking out, and “it’s just a job.”

We don’t need Batman! We cannot afford to wait for leaders who tell us how to change!

We need to become superheroes in our own lives! We need to become heroes to our children and friends and loved ones and colleagues. Most of all, we need to set aside this hiding from our very own souls. Because, if there is one thing about life that I know for sure, it is that each and everyone comes into the world with a DNA of Purpose. Only the most motivated people came into our programs to define or become more successful in their unique role. Now, there really isn’t an alternative.

This is good news.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Tranced Out – The great American comfort crisis appeared first on Inspired Work Services.