Businesses  and organizations need to provide opportunity for their people to grow in place.  Not everybody even wants to be promoted to manager, in fact many don't.  But most people do want to be able to grow personally and professionally in their jobs, even if it's just to get better at what they already do.  Organizations need to spend the effort to find ways for people to contribute more in their current place in order to keep them engaged and to tap in to the innate creativity that everyone has.  Who better to help the company move forward with better work processes or products or to find ways to cut costs and increase profit, because these people are on the front line working with the systems every day.  Good companies and organizations foster learning at every level and invest in it.  Many companies still hold the belief that the understanding of managing a business is unnecessary for most of the work force and teaching it would be cost prohibitive.  However, there is plenty of contradicting evidence that there is big payoff when people understand the big picture and can see how their efforts contribute to it.  Sometimes the investment payoff for this extra training is hard to see because for many it doesn’t produce exciting new products or processes but it can keep people engaged and committed to their work in ways nothing else would and it gives people a better frame work for decision making.  Organizations that invest the time and care to help their people grown in place are truly the innovators.  There is still a place of the division of labor but it is more and more with lots of overlap because this is like a relay race and the hand off between departments must be smooth in order for it to be effective.  In construction where there are so many different subcontractors on one job it is so noticeable when a subcontractor knows how their work effects the next trade coming after.  That knowledge not only contributes to innovative opportunities but profitability.  Most supervisors would never notice the little extra that is done to smooth the hand-off but the people do and it counts. 

In one sense the reason to embark on a quest is a little like the Irish migration to America in the 1800s. The journey was perilous and costly but with the potato famine raging back in Ireland there was nothing to go back to.  The business climate today is much the same in that without innovating and changing there will be nothing to go back to.  Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, once said that the struggle of life itself is upward, ever upward.  We may never understand all the reasons to embark on a quest but if we do embark on the quest for innovation the challenge of the journey will add to who we are and what we can do!

No matter where you start in business your plan is to get to the top or at least move up the food chain.  Start ups know that they have to take what they can get to get some product out and some cash flowing in the right direction.  But, the goal is always to move up, build some momentum, gain some customers and little by little you can move up to higher value customers and bigger profit margins.  The privilege is at the top with more customers, higher value products and of course more money, unless it isn't.  Because there are times when man and market has to start over at the bottom because there is no more up.  Products become obsolete and debt and economies collapse.  It is always easier to go up than down.  Down is what governments and bankers (and pilots) fear the most!  Down markets create lots of problems and can completely unseat the ruling class.  No one wants an "economic depression" most economists, politicians and bankers won't even mention the "D" word.  How can you promise more, tax more and charge more when markets go down?  But the rule says "what goes up must come down" but it seems it ain't so when it comes to the stock, bond, and housing market.  Oh yes it does go down but then it always goes up to new heights when measured in dollars.   If we are honest most of us don't want to start over with low profits and more work and less customers and more uncertainty either.  And this is the most difficult position be in because sometimes you must go down because that is where the new opportunities are.  New products that come to the market and eventually displace the old products always start at the bottom.  I marvel to watch all current shenanigans to make sure things don't come down when in reality it is probably inevitable and it certainly healthier to get on with it more quickly.  It is always going to be necessary to look downward for new opportunities and the new products are not going to have margins and profits that appeal to the current sales force and management.  That is why it is so necessary to have a new sales staff and management autonomy that is separate from the rest of the operation.  Eventually the new business may surpass the old but it certainly doesn't start there and it will be hard to go down and start over to start back up but the companies that are willing to do just that will win!

What is it that energizes and engages a workforce?  The need to be doing something important and worthwhile is part of our human nature.  It is the feeling of care and not any mathematical proof that engages our spirit and not just our hands.  The typical manager that is “Managing By Objective” will not always recognize that “feelings are facts” to most people.  Feelings are easy to ignore because you don’t have any  way to accurately track them, but knowing that they are the key driver for many of our decisions is critical.  MBF or “Managing By Feelings” is not written about in the annuls of business literature but maybe it should be. 

Lou Holtz, the renowned Notre Dame University football coach once said that every student he ever coached wanted to know three things.  Number one was “do you care about me?”  Number two was “can I trust you?”  And, number three was “are you committed to the success of this team?”  All three questions are about feelings and you might ask what do they have to do with physical fitness, athletic talent and winning football games?  Everything!  Feelings of trust and care do have a place in sports teams and in corporations, they are the switch that turns on the heart and soul.  Employees can spot indifference in an instant and will give what they get, as in “if you don’t’ care about me and my future growth personally and professionally why would you expect me to care about you?” 

There must be a mutual benefit between employer and employee, if there is no care in the workplace it’s likely there is zero trust!  Lack of trust is what fosters most adversarial relationships between management and labor.  Nucor Steel had a policy that when things got tough the management team took a bigger cut in wages than labor did.  Do you think that would inspire some trust with their workforce?  How much harder and smarter would you want to work for a team leader that gave him or herself a pay cut before they gave you one?  Care breeds trust and trust breeds commitment.

But what about the commitment to the success of the team?  There is a point where you have picked your team and put them in play whether it is in the workplace or on the field and at that time it is meant to be a cohesive unit.  But even then there will be issues that come up, whether it is performance or relationship related and each team member needs to know that there is a commitment to the success of the whole team as well as the individual members.  No one individual member is more important than the team, and teams will perform better knowing that the best player/performer or worst player/performer will be worked with and coached or disciplined not just removed on a whim or a bad mood.  In order for teams to improve  there has to be times of learning and collaboration not just work.  It is pretty hard to show commitment to the success of a team when you don’t take time to teach and coach and to listen and learn from the team.  The work has to get done but paying attention to the feelings of trust and care and commitment will get it done faster and with more energy and effectiveness.