Associated Knowledge

7 Lessons from Undercover Boss – Week 4 – White Castle

desabol — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:36:17 +0000

Week 4 of Undercover Boss featured Dave Rife, co-owner and Executive Board Member of America’s oldest hamburger chain: White Castle. White Castle, headquartered in Columbus, OH, this family owned and known for small square burgers – sometimes referred to, and today trademarked as “Slyders” – the company has a number of firsts: the first restaurant to sell a million hamburgers, the first to sell a billion hamburgers, and the first to sell frozen fast food.

Core values: integrity, honesty, job security.

Lesson 1: You may think that providing a lot of managerial oversight for your employee’s is a good for them and the company; it isn’t always so. With the lack of a clear (and communicated) chain of command, your employee’s don’t know who to listen to and leadership doesn’t know who to hold accountable. To bring order to chaos, make the leadership structure, clear and simple. Adding additional layers of management doesn’t always equal clarity or rigor, it can create confusion and lack of accountability.

Fast Fact: White Castle opens 10 to 12 new restaurants per year.

Lesson 2: Just because a job looks easy doesn’t necessarily make it so. In most cases it looks easy because the people doing the job either has a lot of experience and/or loves what he/she does. Regardless, these are the people you want to listen to, learn from and retain. They are the hardest to replace and the individuals who help make your organzation what it is today. Looks can be deceiving.

Lesson 3: It’s ok to make mistakes. Having high quality standards is an essential quality of all successful organizations. Having high quality standards without the understanding of and appreciation for the power of mistakes is an opporunity lost. Strive for and encourage perfection, but appreciate and celebrate mistakes. There is a lot of value in getting it wrong.

Fast Fact: White Castle goes through 50,000 lbs of flour per day making the buns for their burgers.

Lesson 4: People don’t always choose their jobs out of passion, sometimes it’s out of necessity. Acknowledge that fact and create an environment that enables them and allows them to succeed. Provide employees with opportunities for advancement. Look for talent in the younger members of your team. Inspiration is everywhere, especially in the younger members of your team

Fast Fact: Their production facility makes 17k burgers per shift.

Lesson 5: Don’t forget where you came from. Just because you are management doesn’t make you exempt from working. Even if you are only in it for yourself it would benefit you to do right by/for your team. They are your biggest asset and your most experience sherpa in guiding you to the top of our career. Always listen to your employee’s for ways to improve the company. Those who have been with the company a while know what works, what is broken and how to make it better.

Lesson 6: It’s really easy to sit behind a desk and make decisions on numbers…another totally to consider the people behind the numbers. Get out from the environment that you are comfortable with and experience something different, from a different perspective. You – and your organization, department, team – will be the better for it.

Lesson 7: While not an overt part of the show I did notice that the bonuses / awards were low in comparison to the past 3 shows. I think that it’s especially worth noting that the size of the award, scholarship, bonus, etc. isn’t nearly as important as the recognition that it supports. Just shining a spotlight on somebody who never had the attention provides them with a nice boost. Be sincere, be honest and do what you can. The amount really doesn’t matter.

It’s been another good week for Undercover Boss. Dave Rife was a smart, genuine and compassionate leader and the company is an American icon. I have no doubt that the company will prosper under his leadership. I continue to learn, grown and gain plenty of insights from the show. Hopefully through my synthesis, you have to. Share your questions, comments and feedback in the comments.

Posted via web from Dave Sabol

5 Lessons from Undercover Boss – Week 3

desabol — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:00:24 +0000

Weeks 1 and 2 of Undercover Boss were pretty informative, enlightening and inspirational, so I am going to continue this series of observations and synthesis of the lessons I am learning from the show. This week featured Joe DePinto, President and CEO of the convenience store giant 7-Eleven. There are very few brands, especially retail chains that have the global reach (36,000 stores worldwide) and recognition than 7-11. They pretty much defined what we consider to be the modern convenience store.

Every employee has a story to tell. When is the last time you stopped and asked them to tell you about it. Knowing their stories helps you know how to motivate and manage them more effectively. It’s such a small thing, but it’s also so important. That’s a recurring theme throughout the past 3 episodes, but one that is worth repeating. The greatest asset that your company/organization has are its employees!
Consistency is key. If you have programs that are implemented across the organization make sure that they are done in a very consistent manner. Programs are normally created for a reason…make sure everyone across the organization knows what the reason is and why the role that they play is important. Anything less will ensure that the program will fail.
Opportunity to grow and advance is a key recruitment and retention tool. The best thing you can do for the health of the organization is to create (and communicate) a well-definited path for advancement. You can’t sell the idea of careers without having a career path!
Your customers impression of your organization isn’t based on some grand brand promise or fancy marketing materials, it’s based on where and how they interact with you. Corporate HQ can be the pinnacle of organization and efficiency, but if where the customer interacts with your company isn’t, the impression that they will have will be less than favorable.
Make things fun. This was an afterthought (seeing Joe’s speech) but I did notice it at the end. If people are encouraged/allowed to have fun at work it makes the environment a lot more enjoyable for all.

This weeks episode wasn’t as inspirational as the past two. Either that or I am constantly raising the bar and expect more and more from the show. Regardless, I’m still a fan of the show and I can again reiterate what I have said for the past few weeks. I enjoy the show because it continues to expose me to leaders who really do care about their company’s and are willing to do whatever it takes to help the organization succeed and grow. In the end that benefits everyone.

Posted via web from Dave Sabol

7 Lessons from Undercover Boss – Week 2

desabol — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:09:21 +0000

Last week, after the Super Bowl, I decided to watch Undercover Boss. I was reluctant because I didn’t want some made-for-TV garbage, I was hoping to find some insight and inspiration. Week 1, was a great success in my opinion, but one week does not a successful TV series make. With that said, I watched again this week to see if I could glean similar insights and also report them back.

On Undercover Boss tonight, we got a chance to see Coby Brooks, president and CEO of Hooters of America, Inc., leave the corner office and get up to his elbows in Buffalo wings and beer. In 1983, Brooks’ father, Robert, joined six of fellow entrepreneurs to start the company in Florida and he ended up with the franchising rights and then the actual name. Robert Brooks passed away in 2006. (If you want to learn more about the restaurant that is in some ways an American institution, I’d recommend the Wikipedia entry as opposed to their website which could definitely use some improvement.)

Here is what I took away from the show:

It’s not always what you see, but what you don’t that keeps things going. Don’t forget the people behind the scenes, they can and usually do make everyone look good but don’t get the attention or the accolades.
Internal perception does not always equal to reality. It’s useful to get out and actually speak to your customers to see what they think about you and our brand. The results may surprise you…sometimes the truth doesn’t always equal your reality.
Despite the best intentions and the concerted brand stewardship, your employees may not connect to it with the same values that you do. A brand is only effective if it’s meaning is consistent throughout the organization. Poll your employees in a non-intrusive and/or non-punative manner to see what they think your brand is, how they are creating and representing your brand promise and what you need to do to improve on it.
Demeaning or degrading employees, under any circumstances, is not ok. It’s not funny, it’s not entertaining, it’s simply wrong. I’m not sure why this isn’t common sense, but treat people the way you want to be treated.
When considering leadership, whether it’s a team, department, divisions, etc. put a lot of thought into who is in the group and who will connect best with them. It’s a bonus (and advantage) when their “boss” came from where they did or at least understands their role and how important it is.
Never, ever, ever underestimate the importance of work life balance and a family friendly environment. Trust your best employees and give them time to be with their family without regret or concern. The more you give to them, they more they will give back. Afterall, how much does it cost to replace an “A-level” employee? A lot more than it does to keep them.
Never underestimate the importance of personal presence. Hands-off management isn’t a bad thing, but management by walking around, especially when you are doing it to connect with your employees and listen to them, can also be a really powerful approach (espeically if its sincere) to gain insight and affect change.

The bottom line from this weeks show is pretty simple. Give people they opportunity to share their true selves with you and you will gain tremendous insight. React and respond in a kind and proactive manner and you will not only help your bottom line but also define/redefine your corporate culture. I’m still skeptical about the show, but two weeks is a good showing. If week 3 (about 7-11) is a hit, I’m a fan, if not, I still walked away with quite a few ideas and insight.

Posted via web from Dave Sabol

5 Lessons from Undercover Boss

desabol — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:25:02 +0000

After the Super Bowl I decided to watch Undercover Boss on ABC. Admittedly, I was a bit reluctant to watch it, but something was nagging at me to watch the show. The premier featured Waste Management and their President / COO Larry O’Donnell and what he learned when he went undercover within his organization. What follows is what I learned from the show:

The higher up you are in a corporation/organization, the more chance that you are either out of touch or growing further out of touch with what makes your company truly great: your front-line workers.
Your best employees aren’t always those in leadership or management positions. The best are the people who put their heart and soul into their job regardless of their position, title or salary.
Metrics and measurements are essential…unless they undermine the people-side of your business. Never compromise the human side of your business just for quantitative measures. They have to make sense to make dollars and cents.
Good leaders stop and listen. Great leaders do more…they want to see the company through the eyes of employees at all levels to see where they are getting it righ, where they can improve, and then do something about it.
Finally, never underestimate the power and impact of keeping your word. Corporate culture is based on what the company really is, not some grand mission and vision statement. It takes employees at all levels of an organization to create and nurture a strong corporate culture.

All-in-all, I was impressed with the show. Sure it was a feel-good experience and the reality as shown on TV could be totally different than the reality, but it made me hopeful and left me feeling inspired. It also introduced me to a leader who I had never heard of before and ended up respecting greatly. We need more stories like this.

I’ll definitely watch it again next week. Let’s just hope the hype lives up to the first week’s performance.

Posted via web from Dave Sabol

Merry Christmas

desabol — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:57:54 +0000

Wishing all my friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year

Posted via email from Dave Sabol

Tilt-Shift Photography

desabol — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:48:50 +0000

If you love cool photography and aren’t familiar with Tilt-Shift, you really have to check out some of these pics. For those that are unfamiliar with the technique, Tilt-Shift gives the subject of a photo a miniature look or toy-like appearance. It can either be achieved with a special camera lens and other shooting techniques, or it done in post processing with applications like Photoshop.

Photo Credit: Karl Randay (pixelherder) @ flickr

Posted via email from Dave Sabol

WordPress Easter Egg

desabol — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:04:41 +0000

I’ve been using WordPress for quite some time for my personal site and sites that I develop for my clients. I won’t get into the merits/virtues now, suffice it to say I find it extremely flexible and extensible. In my new job – more on this in a future post – I am lucky to work for a firm that feels similarly and we have used the platform to create a number of really great sites that extend well beyond what you may expect WordPress to be capable of. When combined we have 20+ years of experience with the platform and we have literally seen it all – at least so we thought – until last night.

As one of my many responsibilities I train and support our clients and make myself available around the clock to make sure that they are able to do what they need, when they need to do it. As onerous as it sounds, it’s actually a fun and fulfilling aspect of my job and helps me maintain a very customer-focused perspective. Last night I was watching Game 1 of the NLCS (go Phils) when I received two rather panicked email messages from one of our clients who is in the final stages of prepping her site for launch. She basically alluded to the fact that she was adding/editing some posts when she received a menacing message on her screen.

Danger!
Self-comparison detected.
Initiating infinite loop eschewal protocol.
Self destruct in… 3
2
1

Even for someone who has designed, developed and used the platform I had never heard of the problem prior to this. Not knowing exactly what was going on and suspecting the worst – a hack or some other type of breach – I was concerned. However, I was also a bit curious so I decided to try and replicate it myself on my own blog. All that I had to do was to create a post, allow a revision to be saved and then try to compare the older version against itself. Here were my results:

Now, I knew my own install was pretty secure – I keep up with patches and maintenance on a regular basis – and also host my sites on a different server from the affected client so I pretty quickly ruled out hacking. But I still wasn’t sure if it was a problem or something else. I turned to Google for some help. Turns-out that there is a documented, but very unknown “Easter Egg” for WordPress that has been present since version 2.6 (at least per Doncha – a source I really trust when it comes to WordPress).

Here’s what I learned because of this whole situation. First, even if you think you’ve seen it all you probably haven’t. Second, never underestimate the cleverness of a bunch of programmers with a little extra time on their hands. Finally, always, always, always (did I say always?) keep your WordPress installations updated. While it’s not a 100% full-proof way of keeping your site secure, it does go quite a long way toward that goal.

Blog Action Day – Climate Change: It’s All About Choices

desabol — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:45:49 +0000

The theme for the 3rd annual Blog Action Day is Climate Change and it’s a topic that I have a pretty keen interest in. Now I’m not going to reiterate what I said on Earth Day because my opinion on the importance of doing what we can to minimize our impact on the earth hasn’t changed – nor is it likely to – I’m just going to say that each and every one of us knows what he/she is or isn’t doing to make a difference. For those of you who take issue with the idea of climate change – I’ll simply ask you to apply some common sense – there isn’t a single place where humankind has touched that hasn’t been effected by our presence. Some times that presence has been positive and in others it’s been negative but we can’t take the credit for the good without accepting responsibility for the bad. Ultimately, however, the choice is up to each and every one of us.

For as long as I can remember I’ve made a conscious choice to do what I can. It’s mainly been by doing things like reducing consumption and minimizing waste. To be honest it’s not that hard – switching to energy efficient light bulbs, turning off lights, computers, and appliances when I’m not using them, recycling everything that I can, and driving a little less. Does it make a difference? I can’t say for certain but I firmly believe that the impact can be profound, especially if we were all to do it. In the words of the English Playwright and Poet John Heywood: “Many hands make light work.”

Whether you think that we are impacting the climate or not, consider this: we only have one planet to call home and it’s ours to do with as we see fit. We can leave it a little bit better than we got it or we can simply ignore the responsibility and do nothing. In the end, it’s all about choices. As for me, I’m choosing to do what I can. I want my son and all of the generations that follow to be able to marvel in this great place that we call planet Earth.

The Best Member Recruitment Video Ever

desabol — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:30:54 +0000

I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus with my blogging due to a bit of instability in my life over the past couple of months. However, I’ve been itching to start writing again and I do have more than enough reasons/inspiration so I have nothing to do but get writing. I wanted to start off with a great video that a co-worker found earlier this week. When I saw it I immediately knew it was great fodder for a blog post.

I think the message is pretty simple. How effective are your member recruitment efforts? Are they compelling and give people good reason to join or do they simply subject people to a relentless chorus of redundant information in an attempt to wear them down (Wanna be a member)? I’d love to hear your thoughts about the video and how it relates (or doesn’t relate) to what you are doing to grow your membership.

And for those of you who are curious, the flick is called “Bimbo’s Initiation”. It was created in 1931 by Fleischer Studios starring Bimbo and featuring Betty Boop. It was the final Betty Boop cartoon to be animated by the character’s co-creator, Grim Natwick. You can read more here: Wikipedia Entry.

A View from the Cheap Seats – Commentary on ASAE Annual 2009

desabol — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:34:34 +0000

I had planned on being in Toronto for the 2009 ASAE Annual Conference. My flight and hotel were booked, my bags were partially packed (they always are) and I even won the coveted Toonie prize for creating the first feed successfully submitted to ASAE for inclusion in their aggregated event feed. I love everything about Annual – from the build-up to all of the on-site activity and interaction to the post-conference buzz that I carry with me for weeks after – but for the past two years it simply wasn’t meant to be. Finances have been tight and the past year hasn’t been necessarily kind to me so I had to make the command decision to bail. It was probably one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make in quite some time, and while I am watching the event unfold without me from the comfort of my home office envious of all of my friends who are obviously having a great time, I know that my decision was for the best.

However, I also refused to let my distance keep me away from the action and have found that ASAE has done a pretty good job of laying the foundation that allows folks like me, who couldn’t attend, to stay tapped into the action and activity. I say “pretty good” because I am noticing things that could be changed to provide an even better virtual experience. This isn’t a rant on how ASAE isn’t meeting my individual needs – I think they are doing a good job at that – just a perspective of someone who had planned on being there but couldn’t and would love to be engaged in more of an immersive experience.

Here are some initial thoughts:

The ASAE Annual Hub rocks. This is great for physical and virtual attendees alike and I love the mobile integration – when I tested it a few weeks ago it worked perfectly on my BlackBerry and I heard that iPhone users had a similar great experience. However, one nag that I am seeing is the Twitter feed does not update in real time. Call me a zealot but if you go to the trouble of creating a “one-stop-shop” for all things conference related don’t make me have to (a) constantly refresh the screen if I want to see the updated stream or (b) have to go somewhere else (e.g. TweetChat or Twubs) to get what I want. It’s not to hard to integrate the technology to make this possible but for somebody who does understand the technology it’s somewhat of a glaring oversight. Again the Annual Hub rocks – refreshing does not.
Speaking of the Twitter stream, I applaud ASAE for embracing Twitter and all of it’s goodness for disaggregating content creation and crowd sourcing live coverage of the many events that comprise the conference itself. I do worry – especially given Twitter’s troubles over the past few weeks – that this is a huge risk equivalent to placing all of one’s eggs in a single basket. All that separates success from #FAIL is another #DDOS attack on Twitter and the stream would effectively grind to a halt. This would not only isolate virtual attendees who are monitoring the stream to stay as in-tune with what is going on as possible but it would also probably disrupt event communications as Twitter also serves a secondary purpose as a back channel for planning and coordinating attendee activities. It’s not always the first thing on the mind of technology folks but risk mitigation is tremendously important – always have a plan B and plan C.

I think an option for future consideration would be using something like Laconica – the opensource twin of Twitter that could be installed on a private server and could keep going even if Twitter went down. Identi.ca is a great example of a Laconica site (here is a good review too). And because Twitter and Laconica have an extremely similar interface and the API is pretty much identical, the Laconica-powered stream could serve as the primary, while still streaming updates to Twitter, it could serve as a very viable fail safe and still involve anybody who is interested. Sure it’s a bit more complicated than I have laid out here, but it’s not overly complicated and ASAE has continuously proven to be extremely proficient with technology so I have no doubt they could pull this off with aplomb.
I saw a tweet from ASAE announcing the fact that 70 of 115+ sessions were being recorded and were available on physical media in exchange for the coupon on the learning journal. This is, and has been a great value add for conference attendees. Let’s face it, it’s always tough to get to every session you want to attend and this allows you to get a whole lot more bang for your buck. But what about virtual attendees? There’s nothing here for us. Since the session are already recorded why not pick a few select (possibly highly attended or some other quantitative measure) and post them online for virtual attendees to enjoy. It’s not terribly expensive or time consuming to have someone grab the audio and slide deck and throw them into a tool like Articulate Presenter or Camtasia and produce a pretty-good quality presentation for online viewing. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough to make me want to buy the recordings later or at least know that this is a must attend event in the years to come. Logistically it could be done overnight and posted on the Hub site the next morning. To me that would represent a terrific value add.

Let me reiterate that I think ASAE is doing a fantastic job with Annual this year. I can see it based on my own experience with the tools and resources they have put in place and through the great feedback that I am seeing from others, I just wanted to highlight some areas that would make the virtual attendee experience even better than it is now. I’m sure I’ll have more to share as I continue to observe/participate from afar, but until then have fun!