6 Steps To Instant Success

I was on LinkedIn this morning and came across an article: “9 Surprising Things That Ultra Productive People Do Every Day”.  And Pinterest: “10 Techniques to Unleash Your Creativity”. And Facebook: “5 Easy Ways to Get Discovered”. (Maybe I’m spending too much time online).

Go on any social media platform and you’ll find them littered with similar themes. Articles like these may be helpful, but they also seem to be a metaphor for this millennium. Who has time today for deep dives? Follow these easy steps, check these boxes and success will ensue. 

Don’t get me wrong. Ensuring that our lives’ boxes are checked may be vitally important – perhaps even a matter of life and death. The American surgeon and writer Atul Gawande published a seminal book a number of years ago titled: “The Checklist Manifesto”. In it, he argued that all processes must be improved by ensuring that every critical step is identified and followed. His research indicated that patient mortality dramatically declined through the use of checklists in operating rooms. But while social media lists and checklists in general may be quite useful, I believe they also offer us an easy way - an alternative to doing the right thing.

Early in my career, I was the head of HR for the Canadian subsidiary of a Korean automotive company. Our President was assigned to Canada from Seoul where he had risen to an executive position, mostly through their Human Resources stream. As such, he viewed me as somewhat of a project and we had numerous philosophical discussions about work life in the East versus the West. 

“You Americans (and we were all Americans even if we were Canadian) only focus on your rights,” he would say. “We Koreans focus on our responsibilities. You would be much better doing the same.” 

Initially - perhaps as a typical Canadian (or American) - I rejected his line of reasoning. Employees do have rights, and within our organizations, HR is largely responsible to ensure that they're met. Years later though, I think I now appreciate what was driving him nuts. 

I recently had the displeasure of interacting with the Customer Service department of my local cable provider. It didn’t go well. I had a specific issue I wanted addressed but I felt that the representative at the other end of the line was just following a script: “If customer asks for X, you say Y. If customer expresses frustration, you display empathy and say Z”. Finally after an hour and with no resolution to my issue, the representative asked: “Is there anything else I can do to help you today?” I’m sure he didn’t realize the irony of following what was probably the last step on his checklist, but he had successfully ticked off all of the boxes – as well as his customer.

What do we owe our employers in return for the paycheques we receive? What are our responsibilities? I would argue it’s not merely following procedures. There's a world of difference between knowledge and wisdom – knowing what to do versus how to apply it. There’s an adage: “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting tomatoes in a fruit salad”.

I believe that today, too many people are taking the easy way out and relying on check boxes or lists – real or imagined – to determine their behaviour in a work environment.  And too many organizations not only let their people get away with it, they encourage it.

We all have customers – some internal, some external. While the customer may not always be right, at the end of the day, they’re always the customer. And they deserve our best effort. That means listening to what their issues are, understanding their underlying meanings, and doing our best to try and resolve their issues to their satisfaction. Our responsibilities are not discharged merely when we reach the last step in our checklist. That’s – quite literally – the least we can do to keep our jobs.

With the wisdom of hindsight, I now realize that my ex-President was, at least partially, correct. As employees, we should have expectations that our organizations treat us in accordance with our rights. We should expect legal, moral, ethical and dignified treatment. But that can’t be our only focus. 

We also owe our employers the responsibility of fully satisfying our customers by not just following: “6 Steps To Instant Success”. (Oh and I apologize for the misleading title.)