Inspired by Jessica Hagey’s excellent post on Forbes.com, Nine Dangerous Things You Were Taught In School (but without the great graphics),  I present to you,

Ten Dangerous Employee Mindsets

(These are dangerous not only for the employee, but for the company as well.)

1. I can’t do anything that will jeopardize my job.

Yes you can.  In fact you should.  Not that you should try to get fired by any means, but you need to get out of your confort zone.  In fact, according to Richard Collin (with whom I agree) you should, “Come to work each day willing to be fired.” (slide 26)

2. My managers are right and I shouldn’t question their decisions.

View your boss as your partner.  You work as a team.  Always be willing to come up with solutions you think are better.

3. Work and play are totally different activities.

In an internal blog post I once told a company that my work is like play – it is fun for me.  Many were offended by this, thinking that meant I surf the Internet and generally goof off at work. Obviously, they had this mentality.  The more you enjoy what you are doing, the better you will be at it.  Why torture yourself for ten hours a day with something you dread?

4. I don’t like my job, but I don’t have much of a choice.

Wrong.  You are not a slave.  You always have a choice. The slave mentality is crippling.  If you hate your job (or are even just enduring it), find (or create) another one.

5. Your career advancement ends when you leave the office.

If you love what you do your work will be a part of your life, not just a workday activity.  You will read books and posts about it at other times.  You will study the principles behind your work because you love it so much.  Then you will realize the career advancement is not just confined to your current position.

6. The path to success is clear: work your way into management.

Management isn’t the only path to success.  In fact, sometimes, it is a step backwards.  I know plenty of people who step out of management for a better life.

7. Don’t rock the boat.  Keep’er steady.

If you don’t rock the boat, someone else will rock your boat and throw you off.  Time to start rock’n.  Be bold (but not toxic).

8. Your salary & job title determine your worth.

It is easy to fall into this trap even if you know this deep down inside.  In fact, it is natural.  But you must resist the urge.  Find what gives you your worth and never let that go.

9. Days at work are a pain. Days off are a relief. Live for the weekend.

Sure, some days might be a pain.  But if you are not waking up excited to get to work at least some of the days, you are doing something wrong and it is time for change.

10. The purpose of working is… Wait.  What is the purpose?

That’s right.  Find your purpose.  Make it a REAL purpose.  Not just “get to retirement.”  Change the world, or a part of it.

Work is something not to endure until retirement but should be an endeavor to improve upon the world in some small or big way – and you should enjoy it.  If you’re not, something needs to change.

Face it: it is very likely the way you work is outdated and much less effective than your competitors – um, I mean your peers’.  Why?

We watch the rise and fall of businesses.  Each week it seems an “established” company is going under, is filing for bankruptcy or is being purchased for a fraction of what it once was worth.

In the book The Innovator’s Dilemma Clay Christiansen took a look at why businesses rise to glory and then fail.  (Fascinating book – it needs to be on your MUST read list.)  He points out that as the consumer’s values change a new business is there to take them on.  They fill the niche and in time they have a successful company.  But soon the customer redefines value – again – and the company doesn’t change with it.  They keep filling the original value (because some people stay there).

A great Forbes piece was recently written about this.  The author writes, “..with the rate that the tech world is moving these days, there are good reasons to think both (Google and Facebook) might be gone completely in 5 – 8 years.”  Web 1.0 is overtaken with Web 2.0 is overtaken with Social is overtaken with Mobile is overtaken by…?  What’s next?

So it is with the way we work.  The way we have worked in the past is not sufficient for today – or tomorrow.  It is mandatory that we change.  If we don’t, as our companies morph they will place a greater value on work habits we have not developed, styles we have shunned and strategic thinking we are not capable of.

It doesn’t matter how smart, how charming or how innovative you are.  If you don’t change the way you work to match what is needed, none of that will matter.  The companies that fail have incredible people in them.  But that doesn’t stop the company from the nose dive.  We have all seen brilliant people fail at business – all because they were unwilling to change.

There are four main possible outcomes for you:

1) You don’t change the way you work.  Others do, as does the company.  The company grows and your skills are marginalized along with your paycheck.

2) You don’t change the way you work and neither do your peers in the company.  The company is incapable of following the trends and the company suffers a less than pleasant fate.

3) You upgrade the way you work but your peers do not.  You find a company that is ready to move in the right direction.  You join them and sadly watch your former company fumble.

4) You upgrade the way you work, become a champion and influence your peers to the do the same.  That culture drives the company in the new direction.  You are the hero.

Be the hero.

No joke: I firmly believe many employers should not give their employees vacation time.  They should completely pull it out of their HR benefits packet. While they are at it, they should also take out sick days as well.  Why?

- It will be two less pieces of information the employer and employee have to keep track of (which could save the company a ton of money).
- They won’t have to play the ‘bad guy’ and enforce it.
- Employees won’t stress about whether or not they can take a day off anymore.
- It will be a draw for prospective employees.
- Your employees will trust you more and they will be more productive.

What?!  A draw for prospective employees? Employees will trust you more?!

Absolutely. Take out vacation and sick time completely and replace it with a new policy I call, “Need it, Take it” which is just three short sentences:

If you need time off, take it.  If you are sick, stay home.  Just continue to do amazing work.

Intel approaches this.  The group that I was in when I worked for them told us to take about three weeks of vacation, but there wasn’t an official way to keep track.  If we were sick, we should stay home.  If we needed to leave early, we just did it.  What matters is if we were getting our work done.

The next step is to completely get rid of the word VACATION.

But, when bringing this up I invariably get the objection: Employees will abuse it!  Of course that is an objection.  Probably because they don’t trust their employees and they made some bad hiring decisions.  But if you hired people you trust, there is no need to keep track of vacation or sick days or (unless they are in a production environment) when they come to work or go home.  As long as they are producing the desired results they should be given the flexibility.

In theory, I don’t think many people will disagree with me.  But when it comes to actually doing it, there are very few who will take that step.

But Evernote did.  And it has worked really well for them.

Think about it.  Less accounting. More trust. Even more work accomplished?  So, what’s stopping you?

Careful.  This one will make you nervously laugh because chances are (unless your Luis Suarez) you feel the same way, too.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) surveyed their employees & contractors over a year ago.  The results came in, but I don’t know if many people noticed the comedy.

A question near the beginning asked how they feel about email.  The answer was a resounding, “We can’t stand it.  It is a time waster.”  Then, another question at the end asked (paraphrased), “What is the best way to communicate information to you?”

The answer? Overwhelmingly EMAIL.

Ask yourself the same questions and, if you are like most people, you will probably have to admit that you would have answered the same way. (You may nervously laugh now.)

So why do we do what we hate doing?   In an earlier post I said it was because of emotion and habit.

HABIT

In the comments of the above post, Spencer asked, “How is it that email continues to dominate the work environment as the power app? Why is that not changing?”

Good point.  If we look at this problem logically, we notice that those entering the workforce don’t use email nearly as much as we, who are in the workforce, do.  So, reason would stand that in a few years, because they bring their habits to the workforce we will rely less on email.

But when they join us they also adopt the email habit and work just as inefficiently as we do.  Wha?!

Habit is not only personal habit, but also cultural habit. When a new person joins the workforce, they also join and buy in to the culture, processes and traditions of working.  And, for the most part, they are not in a position of authority to make any changes.  Thus, the habit continues. We continue to use email and love and despise it all at once.

STOPPING THE MADNESS

So, how do we stop the madness?  First, I don’t believe email will ever go away.  Just like the phone didn’t – and sending snail mail.  It will instead be pushed into a more narrow focus of function.

The change starts with you.  And me.  And Luis.  YOU must use the best tool and lead your organizations.  It will take time.  You will need to be bold.

It won’t stop until the habits of the organization changes.  And who better to lead the charge than you?

I am not advocating recklessly ditching email.  Instead, find alternatives that will work – even if they push the culture some.  You might ease in.  Although, if your culture will sustain it, drop it altogether like Luis did.  Help others (because many feel the same way you do).

Teach by example. Lead the charge.

This last Christmas season I was part of a choir and orchestra who performed a 30 minute selection of music.  It is always a highlight that time of year!

As we were practicing, we came upon a part of a song that does not make sense when each part is sung separately - there seemed to be too much conflict.  My section’s part, sung alone, does not sound like it would blend well with any other part.  In fact, it does not even sound good by itself.  It sounds disjointed and as if random notes where thrown in. And that is the same when each of the other parts are sung alone.  Yet, when they are all put together, it sounds incredible.

Because of the conflict, this song is difficult, yet musically it is incredible.

(The whole song is great, the part I mention is just after 2:25)

Our wonderful choir director, when talking us through this section said, “You need to have confidence in dissonance.”  That simple phrase struck me as being profound.  I interpreted this as “Be comfortable, and even thrive, with conflict.”

Dissonence is defined by Dictionary.com as “a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion.”

Here is what a musical conflict, or dissonance, sounds like.

(Start at 2:10)

Together, yet out of context, the two notes don’t sound great together.  But within context, dissonance adds life, understanding, feeling and emotion in music.

I stood next to anther section, and specifically my friend John Ricks who sings second tenor.  Sometimes the only way I can make sure I am in tune is to listen to his great voice.  Even though my part is completely different, his often dissonant voice anchors my tone.

Sunsets

Another way to look at this is to think of a sunset.  Here are two different sunsets.

Q: Which is arguably more beautiful?  A: The one with the clouds; the one that isn’t a pure colored sky; the one that shows a possible storm or rain coming.  The clouds are a tension against the sky.  Yet that is exactly what makes it more beautiful.

Dissonance As We Work

In the same way, dissonance (conflict) as we work can be profoundly enlightening.  It is possible to all be working on the same team, doing what seems like conflicting actions, yet be totally in harmony.  If we drive out all of the dissonance on a team (either large or small) we will be missing some of the opportunities that will arise.

In essence, we must be comfortable with conflict from others within our work.  Not insurrection nor toxic behavior.  But dissonance which may seem inconvenient and uncomfortable for a moment (the clouds are blocking the sun) or a bit contrary to the path we want to take (like other musical parts seemingly conflicting ours) because this is where we find the beauty and possibilities that were always there, but we didn’t realize existed.

Until now.

So, how do you do this?

Read Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here’s How To Argue Productively by Daniel Sobol.

When people walk in to my social business workshops they usually are not sure why they are there.  In fact, I have had many attendees comment that their peers are asking why they are wasting their time.  They defend it, but are not totally sure themselves.

At the end of the training their minds are swimming with possibilities and many are blown away by what can be done.  They are gung-ho when they leave the class.  But that is where the separation occurs…

At the beginning of these trainings I often ask, “Are you willing to change the way you work?”  The answer is almost always, “Yes, if it will help me be more productive.”

After everyone pretty much says the same thing I tell them that they are all lying (in a fun, humorous way of course). Why?

Changing our behavior is NOT based on fact.  It is based on emotion and habit.

• We all know smoking is bad for our health.  But it is habit that keeps some chained.
• We all know that, according to percentages, buying a ticket in a lottery we will most likely be money down the drain.  Yet emotion makes it a HUGE money maker.
• We all know that when we buy a new car, the moment it leaves the lot we have lost thousands of dollars in value, yet emotion urges us to buy that shiny new car (or the new iPad, lately).

Sure, facts may help, but they won’t make the final decision for us. Emotion and habit are what seal the deal.

WHY?

Decisions are based on emotion and/or defaulted to habit. Just because people sit through a training class and learn that they can be FAR more effective using social technologies does NOT mean that they will change their behavior when they get back to their desk.  Why?  The biggest reason is because they are used to working one way and to change takes a concerted effort and a willingness to work differently. Being comfortable becomes more important than failing.

One proof point: Someone goes out, starts a discussion using social technology and the answer is emailed to them.  That means that the person saw the question using social technologies, but used email technology to answer.  It would have been MUCH easier if the person who answered had answered in the discussion.  All they had to do was

1. hit REPLY
2. type the answer
3. click PUBLISH.  Done.  

Result?  A quick reply and everyone can know the answer.

Instead, they reverted back to the way they are comfortable in communicating.

1. They switched programs to their email,
2. clicked the New Message icon,
3. typed and found the name of the person to whom it should be addressed,
4. typed a title
5. typed the answer
6. clicked the SEND button.

The result? A reply that had double the steps and only one person will read the answer.

This happens constantly by many people – they fall back into the emailing pattern.  I see this almost exact situation happen every week (and I know there are more instances out there that I don’t know about).

To be more productive…

For us to be more productive, what are we fighting against?  Technology?  Not usually.  Rather, it is ourselves.  Most of the time we are willing to change – yet we don’t.  We are so invested in the way we work that even if a better way comes along we are not usually willing to change.

Change happens one of two ways:

1. We make a deliberate choice to change and match our actions with our thoughts.  This happens on an individual level.  I decide that emails and their branching effect is too cumbersome for even a small group email, so I substitute it with a social technologies and take care of the problem.
2. We are forced to change.  This the way to get many people to change.  (But force should not be coupled with a negative connotation.)  The switch to DTV a few years ago is an example.  Not everyone will agree with forced change, however.

I would much rather everyone take Way #1 than be forced.  It wasn’t until my mother-in-law had an emergency triple by-pass surgery that she was forced to do regular exercising.  Let’s not wait until then.

It is kind of like running.  I HATED running.  What was the point?  Unless I was playing basketball or Ultimate Frisbee, why run?  I realized (facts) that I needed to get more exercise, it needed to be quick and cheap and running was one of the only options.  So, I had to change my habits and set aside my emotions and do what was best.  It took some time, but I actually enjoy running now.  And, I am more healthy (and I weigh less, too!).  It was the right decision, but I had to fight against emotion and habit.

Lesson to be learned?

If it is better, we need to deliberately try to change our habits and set aside the emotion until the emotion of the positive change outweighs the emotion of doing something the less effective way.  This is a point I try to emphasize in my trainings.

My challenge to you

Don’t assume that because we have something better that people will adopt it.  Focus on and work with their emotions and habit.

Now that you know the five factors to predict the rate of adoption of your initiative (whether it be social technologies, cultural change, etc.), let’s put this into something that will give us a measurement.

First, you have to pick your target audience.  Know who you want to evaluate a tool.  Then, take each one of the five and evaluate your initiative against it.  Next, rate it – 0 through 5, with 0 signifying that it does not satisfy the factor at all, and 5 signifying that it is very strong in fulfilling this need.

Then mutilply the first two factors, Relative Advantage and Compatability, by 1.5 and the others by 1.  Why?  The first two hold more weight and are particularly telling (according to Rogers).  If they all scored 5 then the total score would be 30.

I thought about ranking the results (1-30 = Weak …. 85-100=Strong), but I don’t feel that it is needed.  Anyone who sees a 75% can tell that there is room to grow and will know where to focus to make is stronger. Again, it is not so much a crystal ball as it is a gauge to help us know where to focus our efforts to increase adoption.

Solving Real Work Problems

Two strengths of this tool are: 1) To quickly find where the holes are and 2) Explain in simple terms why an initiative was or was not (or will or will not be) adopted.

As I have used this, I have found that there are two types of adoption to account for.  One is Initial Adoption, the other is Sustained Adoption.  They are both very different and can show different results.

As an example, there is one particular technology I have heard many employees at different companies talk about. It spreads like wildfire at the beginning.  The executives get excited that it is working: many people sign up and start using it.  But not long after, usage drops off and only a very small fraction of people use it.  (In one company with 2 years of using it, there are over 6000 registered users, 25 regular users and 35 using on any given day).  Not only is management frustrated, but so are the employees.  The result: it isn’t used often.

To explain this phenomenon, I evaluated it using the Adoption Index.

Looking at the above analysis (although this version does not go into depth for display purposes), you can understand why it is initially adopted quickly.  Yet why is it not used after initial adoption?  Why do employees drop it?  Again, I use the Adoption Index to explain this.

There is more behind this analysis, but these are the bare basics.  This is only one example of how the Adoption Index can help explain why an innovation or technology will or won’t be adopted.

This tool will give you direction on where you should spend your efforts.  For example, if your score is low in complexity, you will know where to spend your time and how to focus to make your initiative more successful.

I have used this with initiatives to simply explain to executives and management why their products or initiatives were not as successful as they had hoped.  Unfortunately, I have not used it to show why their efforts were much more successful than they anticipated, only because this rarely happens.  But I hope to one day.

Feel free to use and give suggestions on how to make it better.  I hope it will help you explain past initiative’s adoption rates and predict future ones.  Here it is in PowerPoint format.

Adoption Index by Kevin D. Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M. Rogers.

If only we could predict how quickly our initiatives will be adopted!  Then we could focus on those that will yield high returns and we could reduce the risk of failure.  But… those people!  They always mess things up!  Even when we think we have the perfect product / technology / purpose / program, people mess it up!

While I can’t give you a crystal ball, I have found a useful way to evaluate initiatives and determine a rough prediction of the rate of adoption.  To be honest, this could be for anything – any product, process, technology, social initiative, chore chart program for your kids…  But let’s focus on making major changes within your company.

The Adoption Index

One of my favorite books is Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M. Rogers.  Although this largely academic book was originally written in 1962, it hasn’t lost any of its usefulness.  It explains why innovations and technologies – in the true sense of the word – are adopted, or not, and at what rate.  Rogers explains that there are five factors which have the most weight in the outcome.  I will briefly explain each in context.

1)“Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes.  The degree of relative advantage may be measured in economic terms, but social prestige factors, convenience, and satisfaction are also important factors.”

To many, social technologies are just another thing they have to check.  Rather than realizing that it supersedes anything, they see that it is an addition to what they already have to do.  And they already don’t have enough time!  Convenient?  No way!  Satisfaction when there is perceived information overload?

How do we combat relative advantage when it comes to implementing initiatives at your company?  Contrary to popular belief, an ROI will not convince them.     It will help them get over an obstacle, but I have never seen someone walk away from a presentation on ROI energized and excited to tackle a new organizational project.  At this point it is stories and examples and case studies which spark their imagination.  In a large part, it is a process of education and perceived application.
2)“Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.”

When I work with companies, this is often referred to as CULTURE.  What values, traditions, beliefs to employees hold to tightly?  And how does the new technology match up with the culture?  This is an especially tricky one because with social technologies within the workplace it almost always matches up well with the values of the company.  Yet the operative word in the description above is PERCEIVED.  How are social technologies perceived?  As time wasters, one more system to learn, a fun platform, full of noise, and the list goes on.

One way I have broken past this is to show the Party Planning video.  It breaks down preconceived ideas and they suddenly get it.  They had a different perception of what “it” was.  Suddenly they get a peak into what it REALLY is and they realize how well compatible the values really are.
3)“Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use.”

This, now so much more than before, is increasingly important.  In this world of clean and simple UIs and Twitter, we feel we should be able to look at something, or read it, or experience it and instantly understand it.  If it takes time (precious time that employees don’t want to give up) to understand, then often it is not worth the effort.

And then if they try and it is as difficult as they thought, this creates another obstacle.  They gave it a try, it wasn’t worth it and so they go back to the old way of working.
4)“Trialability is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis.”

Not all innovations can be experimented with.  For example, a new organizational structure often just needs to happen, rather than be experimented with.  And again, our modern culture has set the expectation of free trials, subsidized technologies and throw away products, ideas, and methodologies.  The danger here is that the latest so-called fad is not experimented with deeply enough to understand it.  We tend to cover the surface, hoping that the learner will dive in deeper.  But they too often do not.

Yet the easier it is to dive in, try it out and come back to their safe place, the more likely it is to be experimented with. The more this happens, the easier it will be to process into their own values.
5) “Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others. The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation, the more likely they are to adopt.”

Not only are they looking for the stated result, but they are looking for the unintentional results sometimes even more.  For example, rather than agreeing to forgo a vacation policy and allow each person to keep track of their own, they want not only to know the financial impacts, but if people will abuse the new policy.  To them it may be obvious – again we are talking about perception.

************

I must point out that this is only skimming the surface.  To really understand this (and make the tool more useful) I would suggest buying the book and going through at least the first couple of chapters.

In the next post I will explain how we can use these factors to guage the rate of adoption of your initiative.  There will also be examples of how I have used it to show adoption rates.

So far I have outlined three kinds of failure: Intrinsic, Catastrophic, and Pandemic.  (A great podcast discussion centered around these three types.)

The fourth type is Apathetic Failure.

This type of failure can often be seen behind the statements, “I only neet to hang on a few more years until I retire,” or “Whatever they want, I will do.  I’m tired of fighting.”  They come from those who are unempowered, unmotivated, and lack care –  and they are often a product of their culture.

It’s not Pandemic where there is a lot of complaining but no action.  In Apathetic Failure, the evaluation to find something to complain about rarely happens.  Their unofficial motto is, “Whatever happens, happens.”  A “Hakuna Matata” attitude.  As was sung in the Lion King, “It’s our problem free philosophy.”  It is problem free because of the lack of evaluation.  And that happens because of a lack of caring.

Apathetic failure is quiet – hidden.  It may be visible to those close to the person, but not necessarily management.  They fly right under the radar.  Some come in exactly on time, take all of their breaks, leave exactly on time, and spend more time on nonproductive tasks.  They aren’t doing anything that will draw attention to them – for good or bad.  They will do the minimum and rarely much more.

Intel has a way to vet them out: R&Rs, or Rank and Rating (I believe they still do this).  A group of managers ranks the collective employees from most valuable to least.  For example, if I was a project manager, I would be ranked against the other project managers in the group.  Those who were at the bottom (I believe) 10% were put on notice.  Some employees don’t like the method as it forces employees to be put on a plan no matter how good they may be.  But one thing it does do is weed out the apathetic employees.

Law of the River

Why is this a failure?  It has to do with what I call the Law of the River.  I grew up less than a mile from the beautiful McKenzie River.  One of my most favorite things to do is just sit and listen to the river going by.  I would often see a drift boat float along with the current.  For them to do down stream they didn’t need to do anything (minus keep away from the bank).  The river took them where the river took them.

This is fine for drifting, but in the world we rarely want to drift.  We want to go up stream.  To do that, we need to exert some energy and row.  If we do nothing, we go down stream away from our goals.  Those who fail apathetically are not rowing, but they are not overtly trying to get down stream either.  They just float along.

These employees are zero-sum.  They neither add to nor take away from the organization.  They are being paid to maintain the status quo.  I don’t know any company who can afford this, especially in the competitive landscape we all work in.

We fail apathetically when we just allow things to happen without influencing them for the better.

Although they haven’t made the best strategic decisions lately, Netflix has a slide deck that impressed me.  (I am assuming it is official, but cannot confirm.  If not, I love a lot of what it says).  They will not tolerate Apathetic Failure and do all they can structure the company’s culture so that it does not affect their employees.

My Challenge For You

1) Evaluate yourself to see if you are failing apathetically and decide to either drop the cause or, if it is worthy of your attention, to step up your involvement.

2) Find those in your organization who fall in this category and take appropriate action.