Beyond the Barricade

by Don Harkey


Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
echoes the beating of the drums
there is a life about to start
when tomorrow comes!

- from "Do You Hear the People Sing" - Les Miserables



There is a beating of the drums, but you have to listen very carefully. Since World War II, the United States has prided itself as being the smartest, hardest working, most innovative economy in the world. Yet today we find ourselves lost behind a conventional wisdom that values performance appraisals and dashboards over ingenuity, creativity, and empowerment. Our older generations talk about the lack of a feeling of loyalty among the younger generations to their companies that help put food on their table. The truth is that we have lost a lot of what we are when we believe that it is the company (or the worse, the government) that is putting the food on the table.

More than 150 years ago, the father of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Charles Ingalls, sat quietly at his family table as his father discussed his choices for a career. He could either apprentice in a trade, or pursue life as a farmer. His father told him that the life as an apprentice would be a comfortable life where he would be able to set his own hours and trade for other things he needed. Charles didn't like the sound of needing to depend on others for things he needed, so he chose to be a farmer. He ended moving his family several times making a good living wherever they settled. He put the food on his table (and the roof over their heads and the clothes on their backs!).

Today, American's get their desired level of education and then enter the job market. Many companies take these employees in, either blue collar or white collar, and they immediately begin to build a dependency. Our current pop culture thrives on this dependency. If you want a car, borrow money for it. If you want a house, borrow money for it. In 2004, 43% of American families spent more than they could earn. The average credit card debt was $8000 per household.

Companies take the same short-term approach. They build bureaucracies and procedures in an attempt to prevent short-term failures that occur from time to time. They measure and rank their employees so that they can keep the "best" and throw out the rest during difficult times. They borrow money when times are good and then cut people when times are bad. They make short-term decisions designed to impact stock prices or get the decision maker a much desired promotion.

Those of us who enter the management world are trained to "climb the ladder". We are told that we can "have it all"; a bigger office, a fancy title, more pay and benefits. Then a funny thing happens.

I have talked with many managers in these larger corporations who have really "made it". The one thing I picked up from many of these people is that they have a sense that they missed something. They have the office, they have the job, and they are now asking "now what". As one manager confided in me, "I played the game so that I could some day rise to a position where I could make some real changes. Now I've forgotten what changes needed to be made."

We have lost our focus. Why would young Charles Ingalls choose a hard life of travel and farming when he could have learned a trade and lived a comfortable and safe life? He understood that comfort and safety do not offer fulfillment. He understood that true happiness comes from doing the right things and from doing them well. He understood the idea that motivation comes from autonomy, competence, and relatedness. He knew that when he took control over his life, with the Grace of God, that he would leave his corner of the Earth a little better than when he found it.

If your heart is now beating like a drum, its time to start your life again. How can you be better at what you do? Are the things you do making the world a better place? What is your purpose? It is not about the Plasma television or the new car or the job title... its about using your time on this planet the best way that you can.

If you are a manager, challenge yourself to make the lives of all of your employees better. Give them opportunities to make their corners a little better. Teach them. Empower them. Be humble.

If you are a worker, work hard and learn the skills of your trade. Teach those around you. Be a leader by showing the way.

If you have a family, spend time with them. Nurture and cherish your relationship with them. Teach them what you know and learn from them. Pray together and then listen together.

I believe that America is starting to wake up again. We have the greatest country ever invented in the history of the world and it allows us to do things that no one else can. We just need to use our God-given vision and passion to humbly pursue ways to simply make a better world. It is time we crash through our self-built barricades and LIVE our purpose!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
is their a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
that will give you the right to be free!

Pixar and Disney

by Don Harkey



Last night, I watched "The Pixar Story", which is a documentary on the history of Pixar Animation Studios. This documentary should be required material for all business schools. I will summarize the story as best as I can remember (with some help from Wikipedia).

Pixar was originally founded in 1979 as part of a division of Lucasfilm. The group worked on how to use computers for special effects and made contributions to a few movies such as Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. In 1986, Pixar was ready to spin off, but needed some capital. Enter Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. Jobs purchased Pixar in 1986 and funded the company with $10,000,000. Steve Jobs was one critical component of the company.

A few years earlier, a former Jungle Cruise skipper turned animator named John Lasseter had the opportunity to preview scenes from the movie Tron. Seeing the potential for computers for use in animation, John began several projects for Disney which lead to the production of a computer animated short-film called The Brave Little Toaster. Lasseter showed a Disney executive the film and the executive asked him how much it cost him to make the film. Lasseter replied that it cost about as much as a standard animation film. The executive shot back, "unless it is faster and cheaper, we don't want it!". Minutes later, Lasseter was fired from Disney.

Pixar, still pre-Jobs, had great computer people onboard, but they didn't have any real animators. Lasseter connected with the group at a computer conference and was hired immediately. Soon after (in 1984), Pixar created its first animated short-film. This began a long series of film shorts and commercials that continued as Steve Jobs took over a couple of years later.

Losing $1,000,000 per year for 5 years, Jobs knew they needed to do something different. He saw the tremendous potential in the new medium and was a very unusually patient investor. Realizing that they needed help and more capital, Pixar teamed with Disney to produce a full-length animated film directed by Lasseter. The result was "Toy Story", which earned $361,000,000 and four academy awards.

What is striking about the story was the culture that Pixar created. Pixar was really a creative mix of people working in an area where they had no real experience. Their office was described by one early employee as a college dorm room for 200 people. People rode scooters around had impromptu story meetings in boardrooms where they freely exchanged ideas. Newcomers found the culture intimidating at first, but eventually found it very free.

The resulting culture, which worked very hard under Steve Jobs to avoid becoming absorbed into Disney's culture, worked. It worked extremely well. This little studio has produced 9 films total with Toy Story being their least grossing movie. These include Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, and Wall-E. These films used a combination of proven directors and non-proven directors (including the first 2 animators hired by Pixar straight out of college - one directed Monsters, Inc and the other Finding Nemo!) to produce hit after hit.

If you want to see true success and how it was achieved, I highly recommend getting the DVD "The Pixar Story" (it is also available OnDemand on Mediacom for free). It shows a company focused on their passions that allows their people to create and feel true pride for what they do. They don't focus on pay structures or benefits or organizational design. They focused on the process that made them successful. It wasn't Steve Job's vision that made them successful, although his ability to see potential and his patience played a huge role. It was the combined vision of everyone in the organization.

Meanwhile, the industry giant who is frequently used as a success case study, Disney, struggled with bureaucracy and a lost vision. Their approach has been to partner with Pixar and continuously try to change their culture to match Disney's, even though the Pixar culture is the key to their success. Disney eventually purchased Pixar in 2006 hiring back the same man they had fired more than 10 years before as the Chief Creative Officer for Pixar. We shall have to see what the future holds for Pixar!

True Story: Promoting the "Best"

by Don Harkey

Here is a true story I recently heard... A mid-sized company needed a new supervisor for a process. An employee of more than 10 years who applied for the position. In the interview, management told the employee that they were pretty much already running the department, but they were concerned that when they promoted him to supervisor, he wouldn't be spending as much time on the floor. He was just too valuable in his current position to promote! Instead, they hired a new person from outside the company and promoted him to the supervisor position. The employee of more than 10 years quit immediately.

Have you ever heard of someone who was considered "too valuable" to promote? This is a great example of how "rewards" can cloud motivation. First of all, the organization showed extreme short sightedness in not allowing the employee to continue to develop their skills by challenging him in new positions. Secondly, the organization obviously does not think that their supervisors need to be their best people. This is an interesting philosophy that probably indicates that the duties of the supervisor probably needs to be changed.

It is not uncommon that the first layers of management in organizations become more detached from the process and more attached to the bureaucracy of the company. I have known operators in manufacturing facilities who have been promoted and then asked to be demoted because they felt disconnected in their new responsibilities. The truth is that all employees and management should be allowed to feel that "pride of workmanship". Supervisors who are asked to be pencil pushers and disengage from the process will become de-motivated as they no longer find themselves directly related to the success of the company.

Be careful of how you use your supervisors and make sure that you give your best people more opportunities, not more problems!

Procrastination - How to put it off til later

by Don Harkey

I've been meaning to write this article on procrastination for a long time, but I kept putting it off... OK... bad joke... but who doesn't procrastinate? I don't know many people who say that procrastination (or putting things off until the last minute, or longer) is a good thing. Yet why do we still do it?

This weekend, there was a series on the History Channel about the seven deadly sins. One of the episodes discussed the sin of Sloth. Sloth is generally considered to be the sin of laziness or inaction. In the episode, a researcher on procrastination was interviewed who stated simply that procrastination is often caused when a person simply doesn't have a clear idea what to do next. Very detailed people tend to procrastinate more because they get frustrated when they can't work out the details.

I immediately began applying what I already know about motivation to this concept (I know... I'm a sick person). After all, it seems reasonable that someone who procrastinates something isn't extremely motivated to do whatever it is they are putting off until later. Motivation is created by 3 factors; autonomy, relatedness, and competence. This certainly matches the researcher's observation. If someone doesn't have a clear view of how they need to do something or if they simply don't see a strong reason to do something, they are lacking either relatedness or competence.

A good example of something commonly procrastinated is starting a business. Many people have a good idea for a business and have the skills necessary to be successful within that idea. However, the steps toward starting a business are complex and cloudy, especially to someone doing it for the first time. How will I get customers? How do I organize the business? How do I do my taxes? These unknowns lead to feelings of incompetence and stifle the motivation to act.

People who frequently enter new and uncharted waters have developed a different type of competence. These people have gained confidence in their ability to handle the unknown. They feel competent to handle the unknown and rarely procrastinate entering into a new world. Have you ever known someone like this? As Dave Ramsey often says about working for yourself, once you know how to go out and kill something and bring it home for the family, you will never go hungry.

Within organizations, employers combat procrastination all of the time. This is especially true within companies that train their employees to rigid procedures. These employees feel competent when they are working "on script" and get very uncomfortable when forced to improvise. As an alternative, organizations should deliberately push employees to the edge of their competence to help them gain confidence in new situations.

Sometimes this involves simple tasks. I knew someone who worked regularly in a manufacturing facility who refused to use the plant paging system, even though doing so would make the person's job a lot easier. Sometimes this involves more complex tasks like visiting a client in person or developing a new business relationship.

The key point here is that motivation and procrastination go hand in hand. Procrastination is caused by either 1) failure to see the importance of the task (relatedness) or 2) discomfort caused by a feeling of incompetence. Organizations can combat both of these by establishing a clear direction (vision), linking tasks to the vision, and by challenging their employees to expand their competence. Start today! (or maybe next week...)