Sugar, Screw-Ups and Accountability

I am fed up with rules, nannying and pointless evasion of responsibility in the UK. It's starting to remind me of some of the more dysfunctional companies I work with.

Recent news stories have drawn attention to plans for removing sweet treats from check out areas and considerations of a 'sugar tax' by the government. This is aimed at reducing the number of obese (fat) people in the UK - especially children, and as this recent article in the Guardian points out, there are more problems (fat people) in the UK than anywhere else in Western Europe.

You can spend as much time as you wish researching this, but there are two facts you rarely see pointed out.

Eating more than you burn off during the day will add to your weight. 

People do not HAVE to consume sugary food and drink.

Typically the press take aim at Coke, Starbucks and McDonalds - but I recently grabbed a can of San Pellegrino Limonata which also has over 30 grams of sugar within - about a third of my daily allowance. It was lovely - but I don't feel the urge to consume six every day. 

Nor to I typically go on to grab a Coke, followed by a Frapuccino and a Big Mac.

Likewise, if I want to grab a chocolate bar at the checkout, I will. Another 30% of my sugar intake for the day - but I'm not of a mind to eat one every time I go out. If one of my children ask me for sweets at the checkout, I can say 'no'. I do not need supermarkets to rearrange because I have no self control or parenting skill.

Kat Cole, the President of Cinnabon has exactly the right attitude to this, Cinnabon sell wonderful indulgences ranging all the way from 90 - 880 calories (and we desperately need more of their stores here in the UK). Here's a perfect common sense quote from her:

"We're not a health food, clearly we're a treat and if you believe people want to treat themselves, and I do, and if you believe they're going to want to do that with sweet treats, and I do, then there's a place in the world for indulgent companies"

Bravo. All companies now have the calorie count of their products on the menu. Don't complain when you find your iced coffee has 600 calories - it's YOUR fault for not reading the menu and taking note, not theirs for selling it.  

It's a responsibility issue. If I choose to get fat by consuming too much sugar it's MY fault. Not that of the government or the company that sells it. I am choosing to become unhealthy, choosing to put a burden on my joints and organs. No one is to blame but me.

Too many companies I work with have little concept of accountability. Email is used as a cover your a** mechanism and 'group' decisions are the norm so if something goes wrong nobody is to blame.

It is OK to blame people for screw ups. It is OK to accept blame. It is right and proper to learn from mistakes and move on. Screw ups are an intense form of critical feedback which should be used for personal and professional development.

If screw ups cost the company money, then you just invested that amount of money in a learning experience. 

If you take the opposite view and decide to punish all screw ups then the behaviour of those in the company will change to 'share' responsibility, avoid risk and ultimately cripple you with indecision.

If you are fat or thin, fit or unfit, then decisions YOU made got you there.

If you are an executive in a company that does not hold your managers and staff accountable for their decisions, then YOU are responsible for their behaviour, and the failure that will eventually follow.

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It's Not Sexism - It's Good Manners

I spend more time in London than any other city, with friends, clients or fellow Engage For Success team members, which for me involves a train journey, usually followed by a hop through the tube system. 

Often there are not enough seats to go round - so I spend some of my journey standing up, which is absolutely fine by me.

There are always others in greater need of seating - the elderly, those with injury or disability, families trying to sit together.......but most of the time I give up my seat for a lady. 

Not because I'm sexist or believe women to be the weaker sex, but because I think it's a nice, polite thing to do.

If I was travelling with my Wife, I would not sit down and let her stand - so I find it weird that some men will sit down and watch women standing when they wouldn't dream of letting their girlfriends, wives or mothers do the same.

This is not a generational thing - yesterday I saw an elderly gentleman give up his seat for lady on the tube, a teenage girl did the same on the mainline train. In both cases, many more women were left standing by seemingly fit, able bodied men.

I realise that women have to bear some of the blame here - for decades fear has been instilled into men that by offering kindness to women they may be instantly labelled sexist and publicly humiliated - but I'm pretty resilient to that kind of nonsense so here are my top tips if you feel like developing some manners today. 

If you cannot make eye contact first (while standing and gesturing at the now empty seat),  then stand up, walk over the person you want to give you seat to, smile and say "There's a seat there if you'd like it".

Almost always, they will say "Thank you" and take it. 

If not, the two most common objections are "No thank you, It's OK" or "I'll be getting off at the next stop"

Here are some things you can say in that situation......

On mainline trains this usually means you'll be spending the rest of the journey at the end of the carriage, with a bunch of other people who cannot work on their laptops or spend all their time buried in their smartphone.

An unexpected bonus of this behaviour is that you may find you've started a conversation in the near silence of the modern morgue/library environment of the public transport system - and the journey will pass much more quickly.

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Look Up - Smart Phones, Dumb People

Like 35 million other people, the YouTube video "Look Up" struck a chord with me last week (you can find the video at the bottom of this blog).

Having also watched the BCC documentary "Blurred Lines" investigate whether women are being subjected to more sexism in our culture, and having a number of tweets from Everyday Sexism....we decided to increase the 'draconian' measures in our houshould.

We've had a 7pm curfew on technology for quite some time (although homework for  the children has been known to extend that) - but for the last few weeks we've been dropping out of the (dis)connected world for Sundays too.

We still have the TV, and the radio - but the phones, tablets, web browsers, and even Minecraft are not not allowed. It's just for one day - how hard can it be?

This is not without it's problems, my eldest is nearly fifteen, and we have three others at twelve, ten and four. Removing their technical umbilical chord causes some 'discussion' - but so far we've stuck with it.

Last Sunday, they raided cupboards in the house, found Nerf guns and all four set off to the local park to play some variant of 'Cowboys, Indians and Aliens' which one later referred to as a "first person shooter, but real".........tragic.

But they spent time creatively, thinking up new things to do and generally having a heck of a lot more fun than when glued to a screen. Although they did get a wet, dirty and bruised. Shame.

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'Look up' has equal weight in corporate life too. 

Ignoring generational generalisms - most of the people I work with have a smart device glued to their hands (myself included), and although they can be used for work purposes, they also provide an innovational and emotional straightjacket if never put down.

Sitting in meetings, at conferences, even at your desk while looking down all the day will constrain your ability to think, socialise and make new connections - and it's bad for your health.

I'm not advocating removing the gadgets from our professional lives, just taking a break every now and again. Go and make eye contact with real people, walk, discuss, debate. Don't reach for the gadget to find the answer - ask those around you for their opinions.

We are losing the ability to build real relationships with real people, and this is starting to impact on the ability to collaborate and socialise within the workplace too.

Try this experiment. When you get home tonight, park all the gadgets. See if you can spend  the evening without them. See what happens. 

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10 Great Culture Quotes - Superhero Edition

My family all love the super hero movies, and together we picked out ten quotes that everyone can use at work to improve their culture.........

1 

Working together is critical, no matter how small or large the team is. If everyone in the company is not pulling in the same direction, then it's going to be hard to get things done. Do not pursue your own agenda, or tolerate if from those around you.

2 

If you're not learning, then you're not growing, and soon your skills will be obsolete. Continuous learning is a life skill you need to have - or one day you may lose your hammer.

3

Assume positive intent from those around you - only super villains come to work to screw up your day. It is unlikely that this applies to your colleagues.

4

It's hard to remove the brilliant jerks because of the results they deliver. Do not tolerate it - get rid of them before people get angry and real damage is done.

5

You can make a difference. No matter how hard the challenge or how impossible it seems, change always starts with you. 

6

Innovation usually needs a kick start. Analysis paralysis and too much planning can lead to the world changing before anything get's done. It's not arrogant, it's smart.

7

Lot's of people talk a good game, but ultimately your reputation is defined by your actions. Trust starts here. 

8

Your career will not follow a straight path to the top, and most companies go through pain during their financial year. Maintaining a positive attitude will help those around you deal with the tough times - no matter how weird the people you work with are.

9

Don't be afraid to make the tough decisions, companies get screwed up when they forget this. It's typically much easier to apologise than get permission - and you know you're doing the right thing, because you are right there in the thick of it.

10

You need to use your gifts to help others - if you're skills are not being used, then you are unlikely to be happy.

(Top 10 culture quotes from inspiring leaders in business can be found here)

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Nanny State Culture and Halal Meat

Culture is my thing, I love working with people on their engagement strategies, I love making companies better places to be. I try and avoid strong opinion and controversy, but embrace crucial conversations - which is why I'm a little worried about publishing this blog.

Last week I was talking with David D'Souza about his blog "The Sexy Women of HR" and some of the trouble it caused. I enjoyed it, it made me laugh - and I didn't take it too seriously - ultimately it started a great debate which is always healthy.

But I wouldn't be brave enough to have written it.

However, two things just pushed me over the edge. Firstly, I was astonished to hear the leader of our political opposition talking about banning the displays of sweets at supermarket checkouts, and making that a major policy should they reach government after the next election.

Really? Is there nothing better the government of the sixth largest economy of the world could be doing?

He claims it's to help obesity rates decline, especially with regards to children. But I have an alternative policy - trust people to say 'no' to their children and make up their own minds.

I have a fundamental belief that it's my choice to resist (or give into) temptation, and it's certainly not the place of the government to dictate the positioning of goods in a supermarket. Weird I know, freedom of choice......it will never catch on.

If the opposition wants a controversial policy about obesity, how about giving the UK population five years to change before introducing a 'no free healthcare' policy for the clinically obese. 

That should make people a lot healthier, reduce food consumption and reduce health expenditure - and it's easy to measure (may improve our chances in the Olympics too). That beats moving the chocolate a few feet away from the checkout.....

Then today I find that much of the supermarket meat sold in the UK is Halal, and the companies involved haven't thought to mention it. Stunning.

Cards on the table here - as a family we buy most of our meat from the butcher, we keep chickens that I kill and eat on occasion, and I'm a very imperfect Christian (aren't we all).

But this Halal debate makes me angry. 

Do I object to an Islamic blessing being said over an animal as it dies ("In the name of Allah, who is the greatest")? A little bit, but maybe I should take more offence -  there are plenty of scripture interpretations out on the web that say I should.

But personally I take this verse from the Bible as the final word... 

"It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth...........Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart - that's what defiles you" Matthew 15:10 & 15:17

Do I object to an animal having it's throat cut after being stunned unconscious? No - but that cannot happen with cattle, electro-stunning won't work and I do certainly object to a live, conscious animal having it's throat cut and dying slowly.

But what really makes me upset is that this activity has been kept from the consumer. You would imagine after the horse meat scandal last year, somebody might have thought honesty would be a good option.

Because it IS dishonest - everyone working in the food industry (at least those with any common sense) know that labelling meat Halal will affect sales - so it was deliberately left off the packaging. That's lying by omission, even if many don't care (or prefer not to know) about how their meat gets to the table.

It must increase the cost of our meat, it's certainly not the most efficient or fastest way to kill on the scale needed for modern appetites, and that means everyone is bearing a shared extra cost for the activity.

4.8% of the UK population is Muslim - and regardless of the 'secular' make up of our society, it  is wrong to make universal decisions based on a small minority. If 5% of your company wanted to start and finish work an hour early, I don't think that would change corporate policy.

But most of all I object to seeing any objection or debate about this practice being labelled as racist. Grammatically it is incorrect - Islam is a religion not a race, and ethically it is wrong.

Objecting to the way animals are slaughtered is not racist, or even Islamophobic - it's a matter of personal opinion.  

And the executives of the supermarket chains should hang their heads in shame for intentionally supporting the practice of concealment.  

So I leave you with this thought - what kind of culture are you condoning within your own organisation?

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Employee Engagement and Innovation

Here in the UK, the government is pushing hard to spend vast amounts of money on a new high speed rail link (known as HS2) to reduce the time in which people can travel from London to Birmingham, and then eventually to Leeds and Manchester.

Successive obstacles are learning to increased costs and more delays, not least of which are public concerns about the plans.

I also have a problem with HS2. 

Not with building more infrastructure for transport, but simply because it's depressing to read about the boring train types that are being planned, and envision the outcome.

I grew up with a 1354mph aircraft that flew nearly 800mph faster than the latest Boeing Dreamliner, and a space ship that could fly into space with seven people, do cool stuff and then fly back home to do it all over again. 

(Try explaining to kids that humans used to be able to fly twice as fast as a bullet in large groups, but not any more).

200 years ago we started the rail network with steam, 100 years ago there was electric, and then diesel. 50 years ago In Japan the 200mph Shinkansen started to run followed by the TGV in France. 30 years ago Magnetic Levitation trains emerged, carrying passengers at over 270mph by monorail in Germany and more conventionally in Shanghai.

Current fastest? In China there's a train that travels at 302mph, which is pretty cool.

In Britain? We're going to reach.....wait for it......225mph - but only in certain small sections. Which is just great - it's really nice to be copying what other countries have - and it's safe to be behind the curve.

That's the secret of success isn't it? Incremental upgrades. Playing safe. Avoiding risk. Please everyone all the time.

Bollocks.

Any business that desires success needs to shatter expectations with something amazing. Something new and incredible that captures the imagination. Too many companies complain about a lack of innovation without encouraging it, daring to take risks or listening to 'left field' ideas of their employees.

When was the last time your company captured YOUR imagination? What was the last thing you did to build passion in your teams?

How can you expect engaged employees if you don't fire imagination with what you do? 

So what should HS2 be like? 

How about a nuclear powered zero emission magnetic monorail with passenger pods travelling at 760mph? I want to get from London to Birmingham in 8 minutes, not 40. I want the UK to have some ambition!

Invent that. Make something that changes the world, create a technology that can be exported to every part of the planet. The population will rally behind that.

Or how about building on the Victorian idea of a pneumatic dispatch tube like +Elon Musk with the Hyperloop concept? 

Please. Anything but the same old boring stuff.

We put a man on the moon in 8 years. But it's taken five years of 'debate' on HS2 and nothing has yet been done. Tragic.

Don't settle for 'dull' at work. Inspire engagement in your workforce by aiming high, leveraging passion, capturing expertise, and doing something amazing.

Focus on plans that speak to the heart and the head. Use your imagination and those of everyone around you to do things that wow.

Nobody woke up this morning and said, "I know, let's do something mediocre today".


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Seven Ways To Improve Minion Engagement

One great thing about having lots of children is the guilt free pleasure of watching all the kids movies - which are usually much better than 'grown up' films.

As stated in several previous articles, it's hard for me to watch a movie without analysing management style - which in the case of the lead character in Despicable Me is just exemplary.......

In case you missed this excellent movie, Gru is an evil super villian with a horde of minions set on committing (and sometimes solving) various criminal acts.

In order to achieve success, he has hundreds of marginally uncontrollable minions who don't necessarily do the right things (sound familiar?)

Nonetheless they always work hard, innovate, complete seemingly impossible tasks, and enjoy themselves in the process. 

Without them Gru would never succeed in achieving his goals.

I would argue this is due to the high level of employee engagement demonstrated in the organisation, and would offer the following seven examples as proof:

1. Set Clear Direction And Explain Your Goals

There's never any doubt about the focus of the team. The goals are set clearly, and although the deadlines are tight there is absolute transparency with regards to the end goal - even if that end goal is stealing the moon by first stealing a shrink ray.

2. Celebrate Success Together & Give Credit

The word 'we' is used often - never 'me'. We stole the Times Square Jumbotron. We have had a great year. We will have a party. Great success calls for celebration, goals and rewards are shared at all levels.

3. Never Stop Employees Having Fun

The minions cannot help but enjoy their work - naturally mischievous, they find things to enjoy even during the most mundane of tasks. Simple pleasures cause laughter and everyones day passes faster because of it. The goals are achieved, but their enjoyment of life is not seen as an inhibitor to success - but rather a sign of a highly integrated, functional team.

4. Be Appreciative Of Failed Innovation

It is unlikely that one of your staff is going to present you with a fart gun today, but if they did would you be impressed with their innovation, or furious at them for not focusing on the task at hand? 

In the movie, a simple misunderstanding about a dart gun requirement produces an unexpected result  - but lessons are learned, and it eventually becomes useful. 

Most importantly, failure is appreciated as a learning experience.

5. Ensure Adequate Staffing

There are no shortage of hands to help complete the work. In fact having a few extra bodies helps a great deal when things start to go wrong - and that excess of resource allows for new creations. 

Extra resource ensures a high quality of work and confidence that the job can get done. When too many minions go missing in the second movie, all kinds of disasters occur and everything starts to go wrong.

6. Really Delegate Responsibility

Gru cannot do it all. He is clearly the leader, but together with a highly skilled middle manager (Dr. Nefario) - he hands out clear tasks and steps back. 

He is never guilty of micro-managing and only comes to help when it becomes apparent that he can provide resource, advice or clarification to ensure success. His door is always open, and if no-one comes to visit, he takes the time to go and see what's happening.

7. Listen To Concerns And Take Action

When minions notice things going wrong - the departure of a respected manager, a reduction in staff, missing children and so on - Gru takes notice. He doesn't spend time questioning motive or accusing them of wasting his time. 

As a consequence, lines of communication remain open and problems are not hidden from senior management.

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If you follow these steps, not only will your own employees become more engaged, they will be more productive, your business will be more profitable, and everyone will be happy....

(now turn up your speakers and play this clip)

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