JUST DO IT?

When I stopped laughing I realised a senior executive at the big global Corporation I was talking to this week had defined what lay at the root of the VW fiasco. We were talking about the sclerosis that was infecting his business.

“We’re great at diagnosing problems but hopeless at fixing the problems.”
“Why?” I asked                                                                                                                                           “Because we have action points like this: Action: Fix the problem.”

I was laughing so much because it simplifies our journey towards a perfect world by issuing such clear instructions.  Action: cure cancer; Action: stop wars; Action: reverse climate change; Action: be happy.
I recalled the quote from Michael Jordan.

“If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

To which I always wanted to ask

“Does that include cheating as a solution?”

The command and control mentality that pervades so many companies leads to a mind set of “Don’t care how you do it just do it….action: solve the problem - don’t care how.”

Do we suppose that the guys at VW sat there and said what a very effective advertising executive, now sadly dead, once said to his assembled team:

“This is a crisis. We have only one fool-proof strategy at this point. We shall have to lie.”

I suspect a creeping sense of dismay at failing to crack the US market fast enough and realising changing minds about diesel emissions was seen as key to this led to a mission of collective mistranslation and Nike do-it behaviour plus a feeling of everyone-else-does-it/could-do-it/will-do-it so we’ll do it - schoolboy stuff. Having said this is not to excuse what happened nor to excuse what I suspect will be the consequences of what VW contrived to do in working around the problems they saw.

In a world of emotional branding where decades has been invested in clothes of “trust me with your life, your family’s life, your new born baby’s life”; where the brand VW becomes part of the family, betrayal of trust has terrible penalties. VW has been caught having an affair with the Devil - there are scorch marks on its collar.

Two VW executives said telling things:
“We’ve completely screwed up”
“We must win back trust”

No. Both statements are those that a serial adulterer might make not a repentant supplier…you earn trust not win it. This is not ultimately a game.

The lessons from VW, RBS, BP and Enron are always the same although the circumstances each faced and the wickedness is different for each.

If you are determined in a come-what-may sort of way to be the biggest you will always, in the end, cut corners, fall short of being properly diligent and revert to cheating.

Strenuous competition is OK but never forget what you really, really  stand for.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR LIFE WITH?

I’ve been studying a major piece of research into senior executive attitudes this week which endorses what the good guys knew already but it’s nice to know we are in the majority. It conclusively shows emotion is as important as rationality in forming plans, that corporate culture is a key issue ignored by too many CEOs and that positive-minded and engaged managers are substantially more likely to have a good effect in a business. (Good. I’ve been advising the mass assassination of cynics for years now).

So how do we find these “super” guys and girls?

The Managing Director of Diesel said you had to tear up their CVs and look at their eyes. Are they really alive and enthusiastic? If they are, hire them. Then you can sort out the easy stuff they’re missing.

This appeared this week in Fast Company.in an interview with Oren Jacob one time CTO at Pixar – here’s his criteria for hiring the best:

When Pixar is evaluating potential hires they look for three traits: humor, the ability to tell a story, and an example of excellence. These aren’t unique qualities to assess in applicants, but how excellence is defined is not that common. It doesn’t matter what you are excellent at, just that you have reached a level of excellence. It’s important that you know what excellence feels like and what it takes to achieve it. It could be gardening, jujitsu, or cooking. The main thing is you’ve had a taste of excellence and will know how to get there again.

My two best hires in my career were just like this. They had amazing hunger and energy and they made me laugh. They’ve deservedly gone on to be huge successes. But I would have hired neither by just studying their CVs.

Apart from people who are colourful-thinkers (www.colourfulthinkers.com) and my wife and family (who are also bright and smart) I want to have around me people who joy in life and who care.

So the protests against the unacceptable face of capitalism and the anti-banker riots that have now spread right across America - “Occupy Wall Street” - and all round the world over the weekend should tell us something interesting. I think I sense democracy waking up.