Safe Return Doubtful
By: Peter Block
Much of the
attention in human resources seems to be about how to recruit and retain
good people. The conventional wisdom is to offer people the possibility
of big benefits and instant wealth. Inflated salaries and stock options
are the tools of choice.
Granted this
inducement has lost some of its glamour as the stock market has been in
decline, but the thinking about what attracts good people still runs
that direction. Some companies are now even offering "staying bonuses."
We have become so doubtful about the inherent keeping power of our
organizations that we think we have to offer incentives for people just
to stay put.
 I have always been aware
of our personal fear of abandonment, but now it has reached
institutional proportions.
The same mentality exists in our
thinking about how to induce people to learn. When we offer training
programs, we make them as palatable as possible. You can learn long
distance, anytime, anywhere, online, in the comfort of your own home or
your car and you can learn in bite-sized segments.
If we are bold enough to demand
people actually attend a learning workshop with other people, we do
everything we can to make it attractive. No travel required. Three day
programs are condensed to one day, and we tell you exactly what you will
learn, how it will improve your performance and how the skills are
portable, so they will build your career wherever free agency might take
you. We offer the programs on nights and weekends so the time comes from
your personal life and not your job, letting you know that we understand
where your priorities lie.
Whether we are recruiting for
employment or for training, the strategy seems the same: Beg, make it
convenient and undemanding and promise the moon.
A friend of mine, Ken Murphy,
introduced me to the story of Ernest Shackleton. Murphy is an executive
with Phillip Morris and uses the story as a metaphor for what his
company is facing. In 1915, in England, Sir Ernest Shackleton had a
similar recruiting and retention problem that faces us today. Shackleton
was planning a long voyage to cross the Antarctic overland from west to
east. He was undercapitalized, leaving as the First World War was
brewing and offering a workplace of difficult and challenging
proportions. Shackleton has recently become a popular icon because of
his determination and will that saved the lives of his crew when their
ship became icebound early in the voyage. What I am more interested in
here, however, is not his heroics on the ice, but the faith and realism
embodied in his recruitment strategy.
He advertised for his open
positions with the following inducements:
Join an Antarctic Expedition! We
promise you:
Low Pay
Poor climate
Safe Return Doubtful
Shackleton believed
that it would be a privilege to be part of his adventure. His
advertising got results; 5,000 people applied for the trip. Even though
the economic climate in 1915 was different, I think he was on to
something. Shackleton, in essence, took the stance that the way to
recruit and retain people was by making demands on them, not by spoon
feeding their sense of entitlement and materialism.
Recruiting Good
People
We should take this stance seriously. If we want to create a workplace
of accountability and collective responsibility, we need to contract
very differently at the first moment of recruitment. Instead of
nurturing entitlement and self-interest, we might confront it with a
recruiting offer something like this:
Join our organization and become
part of a place where:
You are expected to
care primarily for the well-being of the institution and the larger
society. We have no mentoring program, modest benefits and no organized
way of planning your career.
Our purpose is to do
something important and worthwhile, even if we don't make the pages of
Wired, Fast Company and Red Herring. Life is not a fashion show and we
are not role models. Quick growth is overrated. Besides, who would want
to go through life wired, in fast company and in pursuit of red
herrings?
The realistic
chances of getting rich quickly are actually quite slim. Only a few
players in our industry will really prosper, so come to work for a place
where the experience of each day is a reward in itself, and let tomorrow
take care of itself.
Safe return
doubtful. Our company is a risky place to be. The work is hard, the
relationships are volatile and the management keeps changing its mind.
Signs of imminent improvement are hard to find.
This kind of promise
will attract adventurers with a heart. It defines the meaning of
accountability and offers some emotional integrity. People cannot be
bought with an unsustainable promise. Based on this offer, the ones that
do show up will be the ones you want to build a business with.
Retaining Good
People
People stay in an organization that respects their freedom and cares
about their learning. Our training efforts would change radically for
the better if we solicited participation with an offer similar to the
recruiting promise. It might look something like this:
-- Attend our training program under
these conditions:
Participate in a
long-term learning commitment. This program requires time, depth and
personal engagement. Nothing of real and lasting value can be achieved
in a few hours, at a distance and on the run.
Our purpose is to
change our thinking and consider the possibility of creating meaning and
a future that is different from the past. No immediately applicable
skills, tools or techniques will be offered. You will not leave this
program with a list of action plans, which are usually created to be
forgotten. You have all the skills and tools you need. The task is to
understand why we are so reluctant to act on what we know.
It is up to you, not
the trainers or presenters, to make this experience relevant. You will
not be asked to evaluate the presenters, only to evaluate the quality of
your own participation. No PowerPoint slides will be used, the handouts
and overhead transparency will be scarce, confusing and hard to read.
The struggle to find meaning out of what the world presents to you is
how learning occurs.
Come by choice. If
others want you to attend, stay home. If your boss thinks this
experience would be good for you, refuse it. You know what you want and
need to learn, go somewhere when and where you can find it. The years of
being an anxious and good child are over. Besides, the food is mediocre,
the chairs are uncomfortable and the location inconvenient.
Again, safe return
doubtful.
The Point
These offers, while a little extreme, are more likely to create a world
based on freedom and responsibility. They also describe life as it
usually turns out to be. Plus, when we approach recruiting and retaining
as a marketing and selling task, we devalue ourselves. When we treat
employment as something people have to be talked into, we are converting
our own doubts into institutional practice.
It is the same with training. It
should never be something that people are obligated to attend. The seat
of learning is a privilege and people should not occupy it if they do
not value it. We give value to our training efforts when we place a high
price on them, not when we invite people with an apology for the
interruption we are causing in their lives.
This
article appeared in
News for a Change published by AQP in June 2000
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