Using Facebook To Engage With Staff at Canada’s Cara Restaurants - Social Media

The Cara network of restaurants uses an application on Facebook called the Staff Room for associates to share stories about restaurant service and tips about managing their jobs.

In corporations with a franchisee network, social tools can be used to effect change in front-line behaviors, even when these front-line employees do not work directly for the organization.

Natasha Nelson is vice president of business intelligence at Cara Operations, a Canadian restaurant chain with five brands and 700 franchisees. When Nelson joined Cara, the CEO asked her to engage the company’s associates to improve service delivery on the front lines.

The problem was that the associates worked for the franchisees, not corporate. Many associates were young, worked part-time, and for some, this was their first job. There was a high degree of turnover. Yet this group was an important factor in determining the quality of the customer experience. How could Cara engage this group in a way that was simple and easy, and use that engagement to improve front-line service?

Nelson researched the problem and found little assistance. An article from one of the leading technology research firms advised against using Facebook to engage with employees. She explored using a portal technology platform, but could not find a way to drive associates to use it since they were not typical information workers. Eventually, Nelson’s IT department partnered with HR and marketing to develop a strategy built upon a Facebook application:

The associates all have it on their mobile devices, and go onto Facebook anyway every day. That’s how they communicate, that’s how they stay in touch. So we decided to use a platform that they already are on and that they know and love.

We launched this very, very slowly, starting at 12 locations of one of our more upscale brands, Milestones. We launched an application on Facebook, called the Staff Room, where we encouraged the associates to share stories about restaurant service and tips about managing their jobs. We are trying to encourage a hospitality gene, qualities that everyone should aspire to, like love serving people.

From this pilot we decided to make the Staff Room into a peer-to-peer recognition platform, because the center point of our strategy is guest experience. We’ll celebrate associate stories connected with the hospitality gene. More importantly, we’ll let staff recognize one another. Because their friends and family are also on their Facebook page, they’ll be recognized by them too.

We believe that this will be very powerful. People will share stories of how they’ve improved the guest experience; and their peers, friends and family will recognize them.

[Excerpted from part 6 of the 2012 Social Business Global Executive Study and Research Project, conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review with Deloitte.]

Posted in: Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, managing people, Social Business, Special Report: Social Business via sloanreview.mit.edu

Jim Woods is a strategy consultant and CEO of InnoThink Group. Leading advisors on strategy and innovation helping leaders make decisions based on innovative and unconventional insight. Read more.

Leadership Made Simple - Ten things you should do as a leader |

Why should things be so complicated? If you browse books on amazon.com and search for leadership you will get 90264 hits. Much is written about leadership and more will come, but is there really that much magic to being a leader? Today I will try to make a short list of things that are important as a leader. Feel free to add additional points in the comments section.

1. Have a clear vision
   Put 30 people in the middle of a wilderness and tell them; “let’s be the best!” As an alternative to that – Explain the map, give them the direction and time limits, or even better, give them the map and let them find the best route to your goal. How can your staff know what to do if you do not have a clear vision of where you are going? And yes, you need to tell them, because mind reading is still not a part of the general humans DNA.
2. Respect your employees
   Yes, it needs to be said. A lot of leaders look down on their staff, you are dealing with people, and as soon as you realize this and know a little about psychology, you will understand that people are capable of doing great things. You used to be people once too. Be very careful about how you market your staff to the world around you.
3. Communicate what you expect
   Back to the wilderness at point one. If your staff is going to survive you must make sure they know, that today is about walking in the wilderness, they need good boots, warm clothes, and you expect them to get to the camp before lunch. And if someone shows up in slippers send them home. My point is that for people to be able to understand what is expected they need to know. I have had a job where I was wondering if I did a good job, if I was going in the right direction, is this what is expected? What is important? And yes, I quit that job as I felt bad, even though the boss told me afterwards that I did a good job… imagine that, how would I know? Well I always do my best to be honest, but if you are Usain Bolt and run the opposite way in the Olympics, you might run as fast and far as you will, it might even be the best run ever, but it will never be a world record.
4. Make time for your staff
   Make time in your calendar for your staff. You might be going to a bunch of meetings with different departments, managers and with your boss. But to get results, there is one meeting you should not skip. Make at least 30 minutes a month with each employee – to talk. About results, expectations, how they are doing, are they happy and so on. This talk has a purpose, and it is a talk about their performance and goals.
5. Give the right feedback, at the right time
   Negative feedback – one on one, positive feedback, also one on one maybe… The “old” line is, praise in public, and criticize one on one. But you need to know your staff, some people want to be on public television giving a speech if they did something good (most men) – and some would rather be in a coffin, six feet under, than being the center of attention. You need to know what motivates them, how they like to be praised and when you should praise/criticize the team or individuals. Remember that an individual success might come because of the support of the team or other people. There is nothing more demotivated than listening to a boss praising the asshole that held the presentation you spent hours on making.
6. Be inspirational
   Instead of telling your staff about the exact number on the bottom line, try to tell them how you are going to improve it. Accountants should never present the numbers; it will make your staff fall asleep. Listening to the specifics of a car is boring, hearing a story about how it is to drive is better; getting to drive it is the best. As a leader you might have to present boring stuff, but do you have to make it boring too? Talk in pictures, talk about what you need to do, to get to your goal, and be enthusiastic. Leadership is not about wearing a nice suit and be boring.
7. Make things happen
   Depending on where you are in the leadership chain of command, and what tools you have been given. But your job as a leader is also to get things to happen. Your staff creates results, but you are supposed to get the stuff your staff needs. It might be new equipment, making sure that the IT-department fixes your departments troubles first. Feeling stuck is very demotivating, your job as a leader is to show that things are happening even, the small steps that take you in the right direction. Are you a middle manager, you also need to get things through to the top level management team to get things to happen.
8. Have some fun
   A taxi passenger tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him a question.
   The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the footpath, and stopped centimeters from a shop window.
   For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver said: “Look mate, don’t ever do that again. You scared the daylights out of me!”
   The passenger apologized and said, “I didn’t realize that a little tap would scare you so much.”
   The driver replied, “Sorry, it’s not really your fault. Today is my first day as a cab driver – I’ve been driving a van carrying dead bodies for the last 25 years…..(40 more or less fun stuff to do at work)
9. Get out of the way
   Some leaders are never to be seen, and other get in on everything. Do not micromanage; guess you hired the best people in the first place? Give them what they need to do a good job, sit back, read my blog to pass time and given the right direction and tools, they will perform. Football managers do not play the field, neither should you!
10. Be human
    It is ok to: be home when you are sick, take a day off when you need to recharge your batteries, to show emotions, to smile, have a bad day at work, and let people know. By being human, you will show your staff that they too can be human, it will prevent burnouts. Show that you care, even about their life outside your job.

You will get a long way being a leader, as long as you realize that you deal with people. There is one thing I left out of the list that is important. On Amazon there are more than 90.000 books for you to read about leadership. Leadership is a journey; you will never have enough knowledge. There is always room for improvement, and you should do your best to improve all the time. Leadership is about learning. Life is about learning, but I guess you already knew that.
via nevermindthemanager.com 

Stephen Covey On Leadership - Why Character Matters More Than Personality

via youtube.com

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What I Have Come to Believe About Management and Innovation

Processes change swiftly.
Management seldom if ever changes at all.
Management always redirects blame.
Success is permanent
“What got us here will keep us here.” 

The curse of success is that people try to codify it. Former IBM CEO, Lou Gerstner has said.“My view is that you perpetuate success by continuing to run scared, not by looking back at what made you great, but looking forward at what is going to make you ungreat, so that you are constantly focusing on the challenges that keep you humble, hungry and nimble.”

Doesn’t it amaze you that with all the discussions on innovation, new ideas and strategies, processes that amplify customer and employee engagement that organizations punctuate their work with methodology from retired or deceased CEO’s and gurus  whose ideas were for then not now?  Why is it that we all agree that we are now in a world of unprecedented hypercompetition yet can’t wait to employ yesterday’s strategies that were successful yesterday?

Is there really any wonder that in most all organizations things remain the same?

Is there really any wonder that in most all organizations things remain the same? To innovate management you have to encourage employees to challenge management and organizational dogma. You have to perpetually aspire to be a contrarian to be willing to learn a new DNA of questioning authority. JW


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Holy Toledo - In another long boring meeting on innovation.

In a long, long meeting thinking. If I were at the helm, I'd fire everyone but the girl at the front desk. I think she is the only one who gets it around here. This stuff isn't rocket science. Just fire all the consultants and middle managers to get down to accelerating customer expectations.
How can you truly be an innovative company if you and HR do your best to abolish the “revolutionaries, rebels, zany, weird, freaky, and “Hey boss this is a STUPID idea” people? Jim Woods

P.S. Human resources are the least innovative people in an organization with an opportunity to hire the most innovative people in an organization. 
I have got a boatload more ideas here - at "Boatload of ideas." 

Meg Whitman and HP's Woefully Inept Leadership - Ready. Aim. Layoff

There is something woefully unsettling about a HP paying CEO Meg Whitman $15 million when said company failed to MAKE A PROFIT only to INCREASE REVENUES by laying off workers instead of “Invent. Reinvent. Repeat.”

Read Market Watch article on other HP executives who received enormous "performance based" compensation only for cutting costs by eliminating employees. Seems to be a recurring theme over the years for many companies. HP's motto was once the stuff of legend, "Invent. Reinvent. Repeat." No longer. How can a company of any kind expect loyalty and innovation from employees and customers when their only path to growth isn't innovation but rewarding executives whose only talent is reckless downsizing? 

Oh, what a slippery slope boards and shareholders seek to climb without long term rewards. HP for example has a parade of CEO's with minuscule returns for years. 

While this behavior isn’t new by any means, one would have expected HP to strive for a higher standard.

Employees build companies. Employee layoffs don’t require skill. Any idiot can subscribe to that low level of “leadership” and management. HP’s way forward Ms. Whitman remains in its motto: Invent. Reinvent. Repeat. JW

Like more information on Jim Woods and InnoThink Group Consultants click here. 

 

Meg Whitman and HP's Woefully Inept Leadership - Ready. Aim. Layoff

There is something woefully unsettling about a HP paying CEO Meg Whitman $15 million when said company failed to MAKE A PROFIT only to INCREASE REVENUES by laying off workers instead of “Invent. Reinvent. Repeat.”

Read Market Watch article on other HP executives who received enormous "performance based" compensation only for cutting costs by eliminating employees. Seems to be a recurring theme over the years for many companies. HP's motto was once the stuff of legend, "Invent. Reinvent. Repeat." No longer. How can a company of any kind expect loyalty and innovation from employees and customers when their only path to growth isn't innovation but rewarding executives whose only talent is reckless downsizing? 

Oh, what a slippery slope boards and shareholders seek to climb without long term rewards. HP for example has a parade of CEO's with minuscule returns for years. 

While this behavior isn’t new by any means, one would have expected HP to strive for a higher standard.

Employees build companies. Employee layoffs don’t require skill. Any idiot can subscribe to that low level of “leadership” and management. HP’s way forward Ms. Whitman remains in its motto: Invent. Reinvent. Repeat. JW

Like more information on Jim Woods and InnoThink Group Consultants click here.