Engage through Imagery

Simple ideas understood by all are both the salve and the anchors that keep a team’s “eye on the prize” in challenging times.  Vineet Nayar in his book Employees First, Customers Second used the story of the “Big Windows” he discovered at a friend’s home in Amsterdam to focus his team on the value (and discomfort) of transparency.  He shared this story with absolutely everyone so they all had a common language.   Later any time he encountered resistance or frustration with their move toward greater transparency all he had to say was “Big Windows” to return their attention to the undeniable value of the process.

The story in short was this.  He asked his friend why he had such big windows facing one of the largest canals in Amsterdam.  After a few perfunctory answers about the view and warmth his friend said “and it helps keep the house clean”.  Because there was so much light and virtually everyone could see in they were consistently inspired to clean up the dirt. Soon the entire story and the irrefutable message it conveyed was replaced by two words “Big Windows”.

The only thing better than replacing the entire story with two words would be to eventually replace the words with a picture.  Our brains are far more efficient at processing pictures than words simply because pictures have had a million year head start.

I found this again recently in an interview for a presentation to a regional bank.  When I researched the company I learned that during the Great Depression, banks in Washington State were encouraged to stay closed.  Despite these admonitions from the governor the founder of this still privately held and family run bank set up a card table outside on the sidewalk to make sure that all customer demands were met, even if he had to take the money out of his own pocket.  Wow, what an amazing commitment and what a perfect differentiator for our current economic crisis.  I suggested to the leadership team that they use pictures, buttons, and tiny card tables emblazoned with the company logo.  I said, imagine the stories and energy your employees will share when asked about these unique adornments.  Their response was, “What card table?”  They not only didn’t remember the story they didn’t understand how important and pertinent the story is today.

They were confused about the business they are in.  They believe they are in the financial services business when in reality they are, as we all are, in the people business.  The greatest differentiator in organizations is no longer products, services, location or even knowledge, but energy.

The only way we can learn how to generate or conserve energy is by learning to manage our attention.   This is the purpose of each of the Bee characters we use for our clients.  Each Bee is designed to create a conscious awareness on those things that either generate or deplete our energy.

Cave Bee drawings show the evolution of the conversations in our culture from images of success and encouragement to the daily bombardment of negative fear producing images.

Some would say that fear is good, fear motivates me.  Would you like your next surgeon to be afraid he was going to make a mistake?  What about your mother’s airplane pilot or your children’s school bus driver?  Fear is very effective at grabbing our attention in a short term crises but repeated and continued exposure to fear inducing images is a recipe for personal, professional and physical disaster.

What is the source of most of these “negative nuggets”?  We have been taught that fear in all its forms is somehow good for us.  We believe that blaming encourages responsibility, worrying about the future helps us to avoid mistakes and that regrets about our past are simply the price we pay for being good people.  The truth is suffering in all its forms is neither good practice nor good penance.