The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

Thanks for visiting ContentedCowBlog.com. On February 15, 2010, we integrated our old blog site with our brand new website.

Please visit ContentedCows.com for our latest blog post.

Thanks!

Job satisfaction is on a steady decline in the U.S., according to a report released last week by the Conference Board, a non-profit global business research organization.

If these numbers don’t grab business leaders by the throat and compel them to take action, we don’t know what will. On top of a still-anemic economy and a near universal crisis of trust,  the very last thing employers need today is a bunch of disgruntled workers operating at well less than full power. But that’s exactly what most organizations are faced with.

Only 45% of workers in the CB survey say they’re satisfied in their jobs, down from 61% in 1987, the first year the study was conducted. Unlike the economy, this downward trend has been constant, not cyclical. Just like gravity, job satisfaction has gone one way in both good times and bad… down.

So, what’s worker satisfaction at your outfit? And what difference does it make?

Second question first. If you’ve been following us for any part of the last 12 years, you know our research shows that it makes a HUGE difference – to the bottom line. Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Period.

First question: What’s worker satisfaction like  where you work? How do you know? Have you done a survey lately to find out where your company stands with respect to employee satisfaction? If not, why not? If so, what did you do with what you learned from the survey? If you want some help with this, click here.

So, if workers are less satisfied at work now than they once were, what are the reasons? What’s the remedy?

In keeping with the last-in-first-out nature of this article, we’ll start with a remedy:

Manage Yourself First: People aren’t going to follow, let alone be energized and engaged by a leader who is confused, conflicted, or depressed. If you can manage yourself on your own, go to it. If not, find a coach or counselor to help.

Now to the reasons. We’ll offer two in this article, and what to do about them; then a few more next month.

Reason #1:

Author Daniel Pink probably hit on the kernel of rising dissatisfaction when he tweeted last week, “Meager money + Zero meaning = Record low job satisfaction.”  Increase the value of either of the two variables on the left side of Pink’s equation, and satisfaction is likely to rebound.

What to do about it

If you put any more money into the equation, do it in a way that serves to better differentiate (and reward) better performers. If more money’s not in the cards, or even if it is, leaders could substantially improve employee satisfaction and engagement, and thereby organizational results, by investing more meaning in people’s work. That takes two forms:

Make less meaningful work more meaningful.

• Take all the senseless BS out of people’s jobs – unnecessary tasks, paperwork, and CYA-related nonsense.
• When you ask someone to do something, use what they’ve done, or quit asking them to do it.
• Ask people to develop their own best ways to accomplish results, hold them accountable, and reward them for hitting targets.
• On the premise that we all need to see the needle move once in a while, give them some opportunities for quick wins.

Shine a light on the meaning that’s already there. This is the more likely problem, and it’s easier to fix.

• Create a clear line of sight between their work and real paying customers. Bank tellers need to know how processing transactions makes money for the bank. Most don’t have a clue. Dishwashers and prep cooks – how does their work make diners want to come back and spend more money? And every assistant administrator in a state community college needs a firm grasp of how the decisions they make impact the quality of education in their state.
• Here’s an assignment for today. Yes, today. Ask each team member to describe how their work is felt, ultimately, by the people who pay for what you do – customers, clients, patients, taxpayers, students, whatever you call them – the people without whom the organization would not exist. If they can’t do it, see the above bullet point.

Reason #2:

While some leaders run around telling people they’re “empowered” (gag), sadly, most of us are actually micromanaging people into less and less satisfaction.

One way to start doing something about that:

Build in flexibility. If at all possible, let go of your concern with when people show up to do their work, and what they’re doing every minute they’re on the premises. Trust us. No one ever said “I hate my job. It gives me too much control over my life.” This one will get you MAJOR satisfaction points, if you manage it well.

If work times must, by the nature of your business, coincide with customers’ and/or co-workers’ patterns, then ask your workforce to figure out a way to meet the needs of the business while providing people with maximum flexibility.

In fields where customer coverage and colleague coordination matters less, incent people to accomplish results, not punch a clock, real or imaginary. If you employ adults, treat them as such. Hold them accountable – really accountable – for excellent results, and let them figure out the best way to manage their schedules while meeting business needs. If you’ve hired the right people, they’ll LOVE their jobs.

Next month, we’ll look at a few more reasons people aren’t feeling the job love as much these days, and some remedies for each.

Til then, Godspeed.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Earlier this week, my writing partners and I holed up in a very nice, new, suburban, high end hotel for two days of concentrated work on our upcoming book, Rebooting Leadership. The trip was a success in every way. That said, while on the trip, we encountered two glaring examples of the utter futility of this thing called multitasking.

Upon approaching the hotel’s front desk to check in Monday afternoon, I found myself waiting while both front desk employees completed ‘business sounding’ phone conversations. The check-in process  then proceeded smoothly until the person checking me in found it necessary to stop what she was doing and answer another phone call. My recollection is that it was probably a full 60 – 90 seconds before her attention was again focused on completing the check-in process. As a clear signal that my experience was no aberration, the next morning, the process repeated as my partners checked in.

Upon leaving town, we got another dose of the same, this time at the airport. My partners went into an airline club room and one of them asked about changing her flight to something that was at 4-something. The ticketing agent in the club, who was on the phone the whole time, held her hand out for Meredith’s boarding pass, said “That’ll be $50″, and processed the change. They both commented on the agent’s lack of attentiveness.

The two then sat in the club until it was time for Meredith to board her new flight. Upon arriving at the gate, she discovered that the agent had given her a boarding pass for a flight to IND, not IAD, and that the IAD flight (her intended destination) had already departed.

In fairness, both organizations are known for providing some of the better service within their industries, and indeed, both recovered nicely in these incidents. That said, it didn’t need to happen.

Actually, my concern in these cases isn’t so much that a couple of customers were temporarily inconvenienced. Rather, it’s that, by virtue of some poor systems planning, cutting corners, or bad training perhaps, these two companies are regularly putting front-line employees in a position to fail with their customers. Good service is difficult enough to deliver these days. It is impossible to do it with customer-facing employees who realize that they can’t win, ergo they stop trying to.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Today’s managers go thru life feeling as if their lips are wrapped around an information fire hose, a condition we refer to as “Data Waterboarding.”  Indeed, various sources have suggested that email volume alone has now reached a level of 100 billion messages per day worldwide, a majority of which is, guess what… spam.

Having more information than you could ever possibly use, right at your fingertips, is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that, as we approach the decade of the 1’s, there simply aren’t many secrets any more. If you really want to find something out, you can do so, quickly and relatively inexpensively. The downsides? The very second you toggle the data switch into the open position or venture near an open web portal, you experience the digital equivalent of what radio host, Erich “Mancow” Muller felt when he volunteered to be waterboarded in his unsuccessful effort to prove that it didn’t constitute torture.

Even more so than the rest of us, managers experience this at some level every day, dealing with scores (hundreds?) of data impulses that come to them in digital, paper, telephonic, and human form, and many days it indeed feels like torture. “When will I have time to do MY work?” And just like what occurs everywhere else, a lot of this is spam, too. If you’re a part of a larger organization, the “switch” gets toggled for you, as others both inside and outside the organization have virtually limitless ability to dump things into your in-box, ‘er snorkle, and dump they do. Clearly, it’s not all stuff that you need or want.

To show how far we’ve come (notice I didn’t say progressed), my parents’ generation considered it very bad form not to examine and then respond personally to each and every incoming phone call or piece of written correspondence. In fact, my dad still gets annoyed whenever he hears that I’ve “rail dumped” an entire batch of email forwards from certain of his friends. Clearly, for the better part of three decades, we’ve been moving at a velocity and with volumes of input which make that totally unthinkable. So don’t try. Here’s what you CAN do though…

Get ruthless. Realize that, not unlike the function performed by a medical triage manager, you MUST sort thru this stuff, and become proficient at separating the vital (the ones that have stopped breathing) from the merely urgent (slow bleeders) and the folks who are just seeking attention or bloviating (hypochondriacs). Fail to do this, or do it poorly and you will drown. And, consistent with good triage, be clear that a lot of your inbound, a majority perhaps, doesn’t need to be opened or read EVER!

Triage derives from the French term, triagere, meaning to “sort”. The concept was first practiced by Napoleon’s battlefield surgeon, Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, who deduced that having some process by which to best allocate the needs of casualties to limited medical resources would yield much better outcomes. Triaging seems highly applicable to the process of optimizing data flow to the modern manager, as it depends on rapid assessment of need (relevance and quality of data in our case) and rationing of care (time and attention in our case). Managers must constantly bear in mind that, while data is useful to doing their job, it is not the job itself. Moreover, in most cases, having too much data is as debilitating as not having enough. No, it’s worse.

Gen. Colin Powell, one of the truly exemplary leaders of our time has long subscribed to a decision making theory that the optimum practical point to make a decision is when you have about 60% of the available information, AND you’ve expended no more than 60% of the available time. That’s the point at which you’ve likely got sufficient data to make a reasoned decision, and can still take advantage of being an early mover. General Powell’s advice is helpful for another reason as well. It reinforces the value of having not just the right amount of information, but getting it at the right time. Stale data is about as useful as stale bread.

To be continued in our upcoming book, Rebooting Leadership…

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

My astonishment continues to grow at the prevalence of bad customer service, especially in the beleaguered travel sector.

Here’s the story:

Rented a car from Hertz at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The car I was assigned was equipped with the Hertz NeverLost GPS system. I didn’t request it. Don’t need it. Didn’t use it. I had the NeverLost preference taken off my Hertz profile about 2 years ago, when I got my new Blackberry with built-in GPS.

This has happened on 80% of my Hertz rentals this year.

Each time, when returning the car, I have to get the charge taken off, usually with some hassle (never as much hassle as today). Each time, they tell me they’ll AGAIN take the thing off my profile, and I shouldn’t have a problem with it anymore.

You can see where this is going.

My request today was met with resistance, belligerence, and a remarkable disregard for helping a customer (a 20-year customer who rents a lot of Hertz cars) with a reasonable request. I had to keep barking up the food chain until I found one adult capable of doing what all the other adults told me they couldn’t do.  The final grown-up I talked to, the station manager did exactly the right thing, and more. Refunded the extra charge, promised me he took the preference out of my profile, and credited a free day to boot. Then he gave me his card and said that if it happens again, in any Hertz location, to call him on his cell phone. I will.

Here’s the thing: the travel sector is nowhere close to recovery yet. The Phoenix Hertz location had almost NO customers returning cars at noon today. LOTS of cars sitting on the lot.  There were at least a dozen competitors renting the same mediocre cars at the same airport. I asked the manager if business was really that good that they could afford to alienate any customer, let alone a high-volume one. He sheepishly acknowledged that it wasn’t.

Any manager whose business depends to any degree on the willing choices of customers with lots of options should stop right now and remind service workers that their attitudes, actions, words, and spirit of helpfulness can do more to dig them out of the current economic hole than almost anything else. People are still buying. They’re just getting more selective. Why? Because they can.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/rehadden) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

While returning from a business trip to New York last evening, I experienced a 2 hour non-stop reminder that we have now entered what frequent flyers refer to as “amateur season”, one of those periods when planes and airports are packed with lots of folks for whom modern air travel is not second nature.

It dawned on me that it might be helpful to re-post a piece I did a while back which offered some insights and ideas from 30+ years of regular business travel. So, in no particular order, here are some things to think about before you next venture into the “friendly skies.”

Planning Your Trip

For many, planning a trip means logging on to one of the large, Internet-based travel sites such as Expedia, where you can plan, reserve, and purchase your entire travel experience online… almost. I say, “almost” because these days, travel involves a lot of forced variability due to the vagaries of weather, crew scheduling, security, flight cancellations, missed connections, and the like. In such cases, you might regret not having a dedicated, professional travel agent on your side. A travel agent – remember them? They’re still out there, and can be worth their weight in gold when the stuff hits the fan. Here’s one I think the world of.

Generally speaking, airline and airport operations are highly interdependent, and contingent on a level of perfection that seldom materializes. Hence, most days, your best chance for an on-time, relatively hassle-free flight is to catch the first thing smoking in the morning. After that, the cumulative burden of weather and air-traffic delays can make for an aggravating experience that gets worse as the day progresses.

Be sure to take advantage of the very best thing the airlines have done in the past ten years and check in for your flight and print your boarding passes before leaving for the airport. Most airlines now also let you sign up to receive travel alerts via text message or email. Do it.

Packing

After years (no, decades) of carrying a briefcase crammed with electronic gear, files, and what not, together with a garment bag, and giving myself a screwed up neck, I’ve adopted some new habits insofar as travel packing is concerned. In terms of what goes with me through security and into the passenger compartment of the plane, I’ve become a lot more of a minimalist.

Gear consists of an iPhone with Vibe Vmoda earbuds, Kindle2 Reader, and 12″ Mac Powerbook that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it updated and operating. In fact, it just came out of the shop with a new optical drive. I’ve not yet made the conversion to one of those omnibus power adapters, but if Santa is listening, I might get the chance.

Paper files are either scanned and stored on a 4 gig thumb drive, uploaded to our intranet, or FedEx’ed to my destination. Keys, medicines, an emergency flashlight (!), hairbrush, and copy of our latest book round out the carry-on articles. The briefcase is gone. Everything carried aboard goes into a mid-sized, black Tumi backpack. It’s stylish, useful, and puts the weight squarely on my back, rather than one shoulder.

Leave the good jewelry at home, for more than one reason. Consider using a plastic watch on trips. With the advent of cell phones, I’ve quit wearing a watch altogether when traveling. And remember, your shoes are going to be coming off, so wear a pair that can easily be slipped back on.

It’s a matter of personal preference but, in view of the TSA’s stance on liquids, I’ve concluded that simultaneously managing a boarding pass, photo ID, backpack, laptop, shoes, jacket, suitcase, and quart sized Ziploc bag with carry-on liquids at the screening site is, well… nuts. Hence, my default position is to check luggage, unless the trip calls for an interline connection. In my case, luggage amounts to an olive colored Hartmann roll-aboard because, A. It’s well made, and B. The color stands out on the baggage carousel. We all like to whine about airline miscues with checked luggage, but in actuality, they do a reasonably good job. Correction, Delta does a reasonably good job. BTW, though it seems counter-intuitive, if your luggage is checked through a hub city, as mine often is, your chances of having a bag go awry are actually greater when you have a long connection, rather than a tight one. So, keep your connection times under 90 minutes and you’ll improve your odds.

Alternatively, with a couple days notice , you can bypass the baggage carousel altogether by FedEx’ing your stuff directly to your hotel. Trust me, it’s a luxury you can really get used to. While we’re on the subject of shipping, do everyone a favor and resist the urge to attempt to board a commercial aircraft bearing all your worldly possessions stuffed into a Hefty garbage bag. That goes for holiday presents, as well as the front end parts for your daughter’s ‘93 Buick. The less stuff you can travel with these days, the better. Be especially judicious about looking for ways to mix and match with your wardrobe. This sounds (and is) unstylish, but I’ve reached the point where, but for one pair of jeans which are worn on the trip, if it isn’t black, white, or gray, it stays home. As for those jeans, I wear them, together with a long sleeved cotton shirt because they are more comfortable to travel in, and though we don’t like to think about it, less flammable in the event of uh… let’s just call it a very rough landing.

Use one external pocket of your carry-on bag to stow any loose items (coins, jewelry, money clip, cell phone, etc.) that will cause you to have more intimate contact than desired with TSA screeners and their adult toy collection.

Boarding

While we can’t control the weather, airline scheduling, or the Neanderthals who set policy at the TSA, there are a lot of things each of us can do to eliminate further delays, and make the experience a little less burdensome. The first has to do with your interaction with the gate agent. Two words of advice here – be nice! These folks don’t make the schedules, fix (or break) the planes, or screw up the weather. They do, however, have the final say about who actually gets on the plane and where they sit, so don’t give them a hard time, ever.

Failing to orient yourself before boarding an aircraft winds up inconveniencing a lot of other people, as you stand in the aisle fumbling with your ticket or carry-on luggage. Know your seat number, and be prepared to stow your belongings quickly. Upon reaching your seat, get out of the aisle as quickly as possible.

Unless this is a well-practiced routine for you, please don’t attempt boarding the aircraft while carrying on a cell phone conversation, or any conversation for that matter. It’s going to slow you down, and really piss off the rest of us who want to see the plane leave on time.

Please remove any briefcase, backpack, or purse from your shoulder before entering the aircraft, and carry it in front of you as you proceed down the aisle. The people who are already seated don’t appreciate getting smacked in the head with it as you pass. While in the process of getting seated (and throughout the flight), try to avoid grabbing the seat back of the seat in front of you, because it jostles the occupant of that seat.

Be respectful of other people’s stuff when stowing items in the overhead bin, and when closing the bin, please don’t slam it. The noise hurts some people’s ears. Note to flight attendants: This goes for you, too.

Note to rookies and road warriors alike: Please check to see that your assigned seat number and the one you’re about to plant your derriere into are one and the same before settling in. This should be a complete no-brainer, but with the aforementioned cell phone distractions, coupled with some goofy seat numbering by the airlines, it’s not. If you can quickly and readily resolve any seating issues without the need to summon a referee, do so. Flight attendants really do have better things to do.

Simple Human Courtesies

Please try to bear in mind that you are entering an environment where you are in very close proximity with about a hundred other people. Indeed, as travel guru, Joe Brancatelli puts it, “sitting any closer might constitute marriage in some states.”

Aside from the seemingly obvious Andrew Speaker-type consideration, your presence will be enjoyed a great deal more if you are conscious of other people’s senses of sight, smell, and hearing, not to mention their personal space. As but one case in point, bear in mind that a little perfume or cologne goes a long way – a really long way on an aircraft. Ditto for some ethnic foods, or, for that matter, greasy cheeseburgers smothered in onions, especially at 8AM. Come on, folks, that stuff really doesn’t belong on the plane. And, if you’ve been drinking prodigious quantities of beer or eating burritos, YOU don’t belong on the plane, got it?

Be respectful of other folks’ space. Unless you are seated in 1st class or have a coach seat with a small child in the seat immediately behind you, do not, repeat, do NOT recline your seat back, as doing so really cramps the passenger behind you.

Consider the fact that just because you can call everyone you know from the plane, doesn’t mean that you should. While the person on the other end of the phone conversation may be interested in knowing that “you’ve just boarded your flight”, the rest of us are not. If you really must, as my son and daughter-in-law admonish their grandson to do, please use your “inside voice.” That also goes for those who simply must regale their seatmates with their latest conquests, troubles, or solutions for the planet. Those who want to avoid such entertainment should get (and use) a pair of the aforementioned earbuds.

Yet, let’s keep our sense of humor about us, too. If you are bothered, as a Southwest flight attendant was, that a “scantily clad” 23 year old happens to be sitting next to you, just reach above your head, push the “ding” button, and you’ll be able to quickly auction your seat to someone with different sensibilities.

Finally, if you can extend a courtesy to a fellow traveler, do it. When you encounter a desert combat uniform clad soldier in your travels, pay their breakfast or bar tab, offer to let them use your cell phone, or just tell them “thank you.” Give the older folks a break, too. Don’t crowd them, and offer a helping hand when you are able. With any luck, you’ll get there someday, too.

Godspeed!

*****
A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Our readers have seen consistent mention of the potential risks to workers and employers alike posed by currently contemplated Employee Free Choice (EFCA), or so-called “card check” legislation. We continue to believe that any statute that negates a worker’s right to have the serious matter of union representation resolved by secret ballot vote is a step backward. That said, organizations that are committed to remaining union-free must do more, far more than simply joining lobbying efforts to defeat proposed legislation. Sadly, too many companies are losing sight of this axiom, or are mistakenly using a temporary “employer’s market” as an excuse for failing to do the necessary things to retaining a focused, fired up, union-free workforce. It’s akin to saying that you needn’t brush your teeth because your town puts fluoride in the water.

Businesses that choose to tap into the discretionary effort (we call it Oomph!) of an engaged workforce unencumbered by an uninvited third party need to routinely (as in consistently) take measures which make it unnecessary for people to look outside the organization for representation. Like what? Like…

Listening – Really listening, both personally and institutionally. One of the absolute requirements for selecting managers ought to be communications skills – including the propensity for listening. People who can’t or won’t routinely evidence understanding of the fact that they were issued two ears and exactly one mouth have no business leading others. One way to augment listening on an institutional level is to diligently use employee surveys, with the results tracked across time at both the unit and leader level, and used as a significant piece of the organization’s performance metrics.

Making Sure that No One Is Abused or Humiliated – In a speech at the Armed Forces Staff College (Delos C. Emmons Lecture Series), Major General Melvin Zais suggested that leaders who push people around because they can are “a little man with a little job and a big head.” I’ll take it a step further and suggest that they are not leaders at all, and need to be on someone else’s payroll, preferably a competitor’s.

Treating People Fairly & Providing an Avenue for Problem Resolution – One of the chief things that drives employees into the arms of a labor union is the lack of an internal mechanism for resolving workplace problems. As a matter of course, each of us wants to know where we can go to get a fair hearing and resolution if/when we think we’re being treated unfairly. Smart organizations realize that it is far better to provide that avenue internally rather than leaving it to the courts and other outsiders.

Showing Up When People are Having a Tough Time – When everything is said and done, leadership is personal. We either gain or lose our folks one heart at a time. One important way to earn the benefit of the doubt in a world that has become entirely too crusty, cynical and self-absorbed is to be there, in person, whenever someone on your team is having a tough time. Don’t send them a Tweet or an email, show up.

If you’re unwilling to do these things day in and day out, regardless of the economic weather, then you don’t deserve (and likely won’t get) the benefit of the doubt of your workforce when it comes to deploying their discretionary effort, or for that matter, voting “No” in a representation election.

*****
A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Thursday evening, I attended a presentation given at the Harding Academy of Memphis by Commander Scott Waddle, US Navy, ret. In town for a paid speaking engagement with a group of business leaders, Mr. Waddle was kind enough to share his message with about 100 high schoolers and assorted other guests.

Mr. Waddle is the former commander of the USS Greeneville, a Los Angeles class fast-attack submarine. On 9 February 2001, while demonstrating an “emergency main ballast tank blow” exercise off the coast of Hawaii, the Greeneville, upon popping to the surface, struck the Japanese fishing vessel, Ehime Maru, sunk it, and killed 9 people, including 4 high school students who were aboard the craft.

Though not at the controls at the time of the accident, Commander Waddle unflinchingly took full responsibility for the accident (“It was my boat”) and, against the advice of his own lawyer and the Navy, apologized personally to the survivors and family members of the deceased.

Now retired from the Navy, “fired”, as he put it to the kids, Waddle now spends his time speaking and consulting. Re-telling and re-living this saga can’t be fun for him. Nor is it fun to listen to. It isn’t meant to be. But in an age when everything, EVERYTHING is cast in the most favorable light and spun for all its worth, Scott Waddle’s plain-spoken message about accountability, offered with heartfelt good intent is vital. I emailed him shortly after his presentation, and told him that I was quite sure that several of those kids will operate on the lessons he planted in them for the rest of their lives.

But the message isn’t just for kids. How much better would our businesses, our communities, our world be if each of us, when we made a mistake would voluntarily step into the light, admit it, apologize for it (with meaning), then take real steps to remedy it? As Commander Waddle suggested, each of us has that choice to make, and the opportunities to make it.

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

For decades, corporations have routinely settled lawsuits, including those that are frivolous, trumped up, and downright larcenous by paying the plaintiff a nuisance settlement to go away. I have personally witnessed this on a large scale in the employment arena where many, if not most wrongful discharge and discrimination suits are resolved in this manner, regardless of the merits of the case.

Looking at each case unto itself, a negotiated settlement is quite often the cheapest, most expeditious resolution, in that it represents a lesser expense than the cost of going to court.

But the cases don’t stand unto themselves. Over time, the less industrious and less principled elements of our society are attracted to the free meal, like moths to a light. In the main this occurs because there is absolutely no downside risk. If for some reason you don’t cash out in a given case, you move on, with no material penalty.

Over time, organizations develop a reputation either as fighters or easy marks, and plaintiff’s attorneys learn who they can make an easy living off of and who it’s best to stay away from.

A more  dangerous version of that same sick game is now being played on the high seas off the coast of Somalia as larcenous citizens of the rogue state commandeer merchant ships and an occasional yacht, and hold them and their crews for ransom. Rather than an ambulance chasing lawyer, their weapons of choice are an AK-47 or RPG, and a fast boat.

Unfortunately, as with the aforementioned lawsuits, very few organizations fight back. Indeed, the ships are unarmed, and crews are generally taught/instructed not to resist once they have been boarded. Generally speaking, shipping companies pay a ransom, get their employees and their stuff back, and resume business as usual.

It has been estimated that the annual cost for this little game is north of $13 billion, nearly all of which is profit. It’s hard to know, however, since shippers and their insurance companies aren’t eager to publicize how much ransom they’ve paid out. Two things are for sure, however. 1) It is becoming more prevalent, and thus expensive, and 2) All of us who buy stuff that transits narrow bodies of water such as the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Malacca wind up paying.

Until September, 2008, when the MV Faina, a Belize-flagged, Ukrainian operated cargo ship and its cargo of Russian made T-72 tanks and other weapons was captured, modern day piracy was largely under the radar. Eventually, the Faina, its crew and cargo were returned after a ransom reported to be $3.2 million was paid.

For those of us in the U.S., piracy has now made a big step closer to home. At present, subsequent to another act of piracy, four gunmen holding Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, an American-operated vessel, are in a standoff with a US Navy destroyer off the coast of Somalia.

Though neither a jurist nor a law enforcement expert, three decades of studying human behavior tell me that, until there is a “hot stove principle” at work, we will see neither a reduction in frivolous lawsuits nor a decline in piracy.

With respect to the latter, it would seem that Major General Tom Wilkerson, CEO of the US Naval Institute, interviewed this evening on CNN, has it about right… “Find them, and take the fight to where they live.” Until these thugs have to weigh some very long odds and serious risk of extinction, their behavior is not apt to change.

Indeed, that is exactly the approach taken of late by the French military. Today, for the third time in as many years, after days of unsuccessful negotiations, the French Navy intervened forcefully in a case of piracy against a French operated vessel. In addition to killing two  pirates in the operation today, since April 2008,  French forces have detained at least 60 persons involved in piracy against French interests. I can only hope that, wherever they are being held, the prisoners are being fed English food.

Admittedly, until very recently, I was a complete idiot about TED. Every once in a while I’d see a reference to TED, usually that so and so was going to be speaking at TED, and I’d fleetingly wonder what the hell this TED thing was until my ADD kicked in and I veered off to something else.

According to the conference literature, “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. And in fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. The format is fast paced: 50+ talks over the course of four days (to say nothing of the morning and evening events). This immersive environment allows attendees and speakers from vastly different fields to cross-fertilize and draw inspiration from unlikely places. This is the magic of TED.

“Each year, the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather for an event many describe as the highlight of their year. Attendees have called it “The ultimate brain spa,” “Davos for optimists” and “A four-day journey into the future, in the company of those creating it.” This event is called TED, and it’s truly a conference like no other.”

I’ve not actually attended TED, as it takes an invitation and a $6,000 ticket. The good news is, you don’t have to physically be there in order to benefit from and enjoy the show.  Presentations at the various TED conferences (e.g., TEDIndia, TEDGlobal, TED2010) are routinely made available online free of charge.

I recently viewed and enjoyed an utterly compelling presentation by Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” show. In an entertaining and authentic 20 minute presentation, Mr. Rowe reflected on the beneficial aspects of hard work, and how it has been generally put down in “modern” society.

If you ‘re not already in the habit of viewing TED presentations, consider changing your habits. There is a full lineup of informative presentations by master storytellers, and, particularly noteworthy in our current “decession”, the price is right.

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com