'Steeling' Workers Sense of Worth

Technology introduces new jobs every day that didn’t exist yesterday. As jobs, government, and economic activity demonstrates that there is no constant, relationships between employer and employees demonstrates just the opposite, the same principles apply today that did in 1892.

1892 marks when one of the first unions was formed by the Homestead steel workers. Two-thousand workers amassed into one voice, demanding that 12-hour / 6-day work weeks to keep up with demand under dangerous conditions was not fair treatment. These demands sat at the feet of Henry Frick. The man who was named Chairman of Carnegie Steel Company and was put in charge of the mills operations by Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist that made an equivalent of $3.5 billion today while expanding the America steel industry.

To understand what mistakes Frick made when mis-communicating to his workers which eventually led to community outrage, we will examine three key principles that still apply today that would have helped Frick turn the tide:

1. Remove the Blinders

Profit-driven. Frisk was focused on making money as all managers still are today, but he chose to ignore all variables that would be negatively impacted by his actions and ramping up production while bringing in unskilled workers to work unreasonable hours. Tip: Human nature always defeats a big idea about how to change human nature. Managers, focus on purpose first and profit second! Employees will work harder and driver higher profits if they understand how they tie into the purpose and have a trust in the employer to act responsibly and honestly.

2. Best Friend Syndrome

Gallup has “A Best Friend at Work” being one of the twelve elements to great managing. I don’t disagree. A best friend can get one excited to go to work because one’s social wellbeing is present at their career. It also aids in withstanding adversity, as a best friend is more likely to see a hazard and step in to help. However, Carnegie and Frick’s friendship provided a mental backing for Frisk to strut his power and motivate through force. For example, Frisk hired the Pinkerton’s to take the mill back from the strikers by force, with it ending in bloodshed. Because of their friendship, Carnegie gave Frick the authority from a far to take the action he felt suitable, believing in his human judgment. Carnegie received news of the unexpected. Carnegie believed in unions and was quoted, “no steel mill was worth a single drop of blood.” Best friends at work can’t read your mind. You still need to communicate….over communicate!

3. Empower Employees to Give Opinions

God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason, to do twice as much listening as talking. The front lines generally know best in determining how to combine efforts for the greatest cumulative result. Frick gave instruction without listening. Workers disengage when their thoughts don’t count or feel their work is rewarded/appreciated. This communication was detrimental as Frick ignored the fact that these workers felt like the mill was theirs, not Frick’s. Because he ignored this insight, the human condition was threatened. Empower employees to shape the company and acknowledge their input is considered.


This example in American history is focused on employer-employee relationship but the same principles of nuturing a positive relationships between parties can be carried over to the customer, community, and family/friends. Engagement is highly driven by trust: The art and science of developing and maintaining mutually valuable relationships.

There is a human condition to keep your head above water. And when your life sets sail, there will be countless occurrences to decide whether to engage in certain relationships that will enhance your chances at survival or direct you towards danger.



A valuable relationship is at the core of any engagement whether it is marriage, customer, employee, brand, coach, or other.



This evolution model shows once you get to stage 5, you can continue moving onward and upward.

Engagement Lust

All leaders would agree employee engagement sounds terrific, but knowing how to begin acting on it isn't common knowledge. In fact, acknowledging action is needed is a success itself. Engagement along with innovation is an investment that should be treated with importance and should not be ignored when focused on the bottom line. As Bob Kelleher shares in his book 'Louder Than Words', how to engage is at issue, not whether to engage. Here are a few things to consider when beginning to take action:

Stay Interviews

Exit interviews are too late. What made them leave is not as valuable as what makes them stay. Understand what keeps your employees at your company and how that differentiates from competitors. Market those key differentiators.

Generational Differences

There is no one size fits all when trying to create an engagement program. Most are motivated by achievement over monetary incentive but Generation Y can be more motivated by flexibility. Know what makes the person tick, not what makes the group tick.

Invest in HR

Engagement is at its peak when starting a job. How to keep it there is on the traits that the employee composes. Make sure those traits match the traits that are outlined in your organization's values. More emphasis should be put on scanning for traits than on the resume.

The Right Role

An outstanding employee doesn't automatically make for an outstanding leader. Find ways to promote outstanding employees without making them a manager of people if they would not be good at it or want that responsibility. Learn what alternative options there could be for promotion by discussing what the employee would find motivating in a Stay Interview (noted above).

Too Damn Transparent

No one will complain about being over communicated to. Share with employees where the company is going, why it's going there, and how it's going to get there. Do this well and you should see employee referrals go up for new hires - be sure to track this measure, it is a good indication for how engaged your employees are.

This list will stop at five so we can focus doing a few steps very well before adding more. In all, why is this so important? Because your employees are the ones communicating your brand, making more impressions than any ad you may be spending millions of dollars on. Another quote to remember from Bob Kelleher, CEO of the Employee Engagement Group, "High profit business with low engagement scores is a mansion built on sand."

Idea Radio Current

Music can be sorted in a digital pendaflex and through algorithmic tools such as Pandora; stations can be created around personal preferences. Twitter has revolutionized how we attain information, allowing all citizens to be an editor of up-to-the-second news or entertainment across the world. What about creating your own radio stations? And contributing to others?

I will use Twitter as a parallel comparison for a programming and consumer experience reference.

The idea behind Radio Current is the ability to control the compilation of voice(s) your news feed is delivered by; personalizing radio content. Radio Current is a social media site that vocalizes members’ comments. Similar to Twitter, one would have one main station that includes all the members in their network they chose to be a part of their station and in addition would have the ability to sort members into categories to create more personalized stations such as – Comedians, Sports, Environmental News, Local News, Politicians, Advertising Companies, etc. These stations would be made up of companies and individuals who agree to participate in Radio Current.

How is this different from Twitter?
The ability to multi-task. One does not need to be clicking a mouse or pressing a button to filter their content – it is being read to them at home, in the car, at work, or on the go.
As a content contributor, one can voice their media message versus typing it in if one prefers.

Opportunities:
Using Bluetooth technology to partner with satellite radio. This would allow for a premier consumer experience without needing to plug in ones device to a car or radio to listen to their stations.

If a Radio Current member contributes content that includes a link to an article that sounds interesting, the listener can say ‘open link,’ and the application would use voice recognition technology to read the article that was linked.

Once we begin understanding the users’ preferences, we can begin suggesting tips on who to add to their network for selected channels.

Form:
Website and App. Free service when downloading app and joining the network with a username – this allows you to contribute content.

Challenge:
The challenge is adoption. This application must have a strong member base to have a large enough population to create a consistent stream of information.

Revenue:
Advertising.
You can pay for different voices to read your news. For example, one may pay $0.99 to have Bill Cosby’s voice read the local news station, or Joe Buck be the voice to sports news.

Differentiates Radio News through Personalization:
Example: One may not like listening to CNN but have one CNN reporter they want to listen to and put into a station.

Innovation Day 2012

The Roundtable felt like it was an overall success at UnitedHealth Group's Innovation Day 2012. There were numerous things we wanted to communicate at our booth: (1) How we will be conducting the UHG Summer Intern Project this summer. (2) The importance of cross-functional teams. (3) Innovation can happen organically in a large corporation and we can be the poster child for bottom up innovation. (4) Unencumbered by bureaucracy, we help accelerate and mobilize ideas inside the business in effort to bring them to life. This video illustrates examples of current projects that we are working on today and our message:

Roundtable Promo Video from David Berglund on Vimeo.

We met great people and got insightful feedback on the question we highlighted at the booth - Could Facebook radically change the health care industry? How? Each person was asked to write their thoughts on a colored post-it for whether Facebook is in the position to be a major player in the health care industry. We got a multitude of answers with 168 people recording yes I think Facebook can radically change the health care industry, and 73 recording no. The thought behind the excercise was two-fold. One, we wanted to show an example of the type of brainstorming exercise we conduct at our weekly meetings, and two, we wanted to communicate that we must think about who could be our competitor five to ten years from now outside of the typical competitor we think about today.

A few pictures from the day:

Team members from left to right: Justin Ley, David Berglund, Jason Goux, myself, Ben Grabski, Todd Nielsen. Need to Photoshop in Tina Atkinson.

David Berglund engaging UHG CEO, Steve Hemsley.

With Wellbeing guru, Keith Roberts.

That's a wrap.

Brainstormin Techniques

1. Apples to Apples

• Buy the card game

• Pick a product or service that you want to improve or expand capabilities for
    o Example: How can we diversify OptumizeMe?

• Each person in the group pulls from the stack of red noun cards. The red cards are made up of everyday things, places, and famous people.

• Share how the product or service could be altered to tailor to the card you drew
    o Example:
       Everyday things – How could product/service incorporate or use this everyday item
       Places – How could geographic restrictions change the offering
       Famous people (ex. The FBI, Microsoft, Darth Vader) – How would they use the
          product/service

2. Bucketing

• Identify a space you want to explore
    o Example: Health care billing, homelessness, cooking lessons

• Give a stack of post-its to each person in your group

• With a Sharpie, each person gets 10 minutes to write down as many ideas or problems for that space that they can think of in that time

• After 10 minutes, post all space ideas/problems on the same wall

• Once all post-its are on the wall, identify trends and sort the post-its into groups that tap into a common area
  o Example: For cooking lessons, having a live online class and having a live 4-person
     cook-off on Google+ between friends could fall under the same bucket

3. A Day in the Life

• Identify your core customer

• As a discovery method, find a way to observe the customer from when they wake up to when they go to bed. This will help you identify the customer touch points and pain points that provide opportunities
  o If you can't be there physically to write down notes or videotape your customer, provide your customer tools so they can record their daily happenings

• When completed, synthesize the information and debrief as a group to identify opportunities to improve your customer’s everyday life

4. Things We Hate

• Talk about things you sincerely do not like (product or services)
• Everyone pitches in to brainstorm solutions

Saturday Brand Thoughts

"You can't manage change, you can only be ahead of it." - Peter Drucker

I'm personally fond of brand behaviors and sustainability, both in terms of the environment and relationships. Whether its colleagues, employees, customers, fans, or wife, sustaining relationships takes work. And no matter your audience, nuturing that relationship comes through transformative communication and thinking ahead.

Here are a few thoughts on how to think differently about your brand and the space it holds in the mind of those you wish to sustain communication with:

• Be remindful of your values and true existense. Sometimes its not what's on the package, and hopefully its not. Starbucks is more about people than coffee. 
• You can lead someone to water, but you can't make them drink. Have you shown a house buyer twenty houses only to have them stay put? Cooked your husband a three course meal only to have him say, 'It tastes a little dry.'? As Winston Churchill said, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." You will not get them to buy everytime, but that loss will turn into wins down the road that you cannot see today.
• Think about how you can do the campaign without advertising first. Think about your office being inside a railroad cab. Think different.
• A few brand names with a generic trademark that describe their category: Rollerblade, Kleenex, Band-Aid, Dry Ice, Lego, Xerox. The world is desperate for new categories in sustainability, what are they?
• Letters 'p' and 'b' are plosives, meaning they are followed by a burst of air when spoken. The biggest mistake a person or brand can make is to become content. What can you do to bring a burst of air to your brand or relationship?

• Everyday you're either building your brand or tearing it down. Today, a client hires an agency for their charisma, thoughts, and trust, not past work. That is because consumers buy belief batons, the product itself is not enough. Communication must account for the environment and the behavior it effects.
• Brands are about controlling perceptions. Expand around your core, don't leap frog. Brand confusion is detrimental.
• Never look reactionary. Be prepared for potential crisis and how you would communicate. Problems grow, spray the weeds fast.
• Are they a good match? I often see a guy with a girl out of his league. If two brands come together, the more powerful pulls the lower brand up, and vice versa. Be careful before dating as a favor.
• Don't date celebrities. Unprecitable and brand should not be seen in the same sentence. Have you heard of Tiger Woods?
• ENGAGEMENT! Ever heard, "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Engage me and I'll believe."? It's true, my wife forgets things I tell her. Tap into multiple learning modalities and the more succes you'll find. Prentend like you have to sell ice to someone in Antartica, make them believe.
• Branding is about taking something common and improving upon it in ways that make it more valuable and meaningful. Incremental can be instrumental.
• Internal first! Happy wife, happy life. Happy employees, happy customers.
• Be yourself. Be Brave.

I Get To...

How do you move the needle so instead of people saying, 'I have to go to the doctor,' they say, 'I get to go to the doctor'?

Similar to how we take for granted that at any time we have the privilege to drive a car down the street to the grocery store, we take for granted that we have the ability to drive to the nearest ER and get care.  American citizens are accustom to these everyday privileges and as a result use the language, 'I have to go to the grocery store,' instead of 'I get to go to the grocery store.' It is the chore to find time to go versus having the luxury of time to go.


The culture we live in has led to innovate new services such as Simon Delivers (now Coborns Delivers), who deliver groceries next-day to your door.  It changed the experience and conversation around grocery shopping from "I have to go to the grocery store,' to 'I get my groceries delivered to my door.'

The doctor holds the needle, figuratively and literally, impacting whether a patient has a negative or positive experience.  However, the experience extends beyond that doctor engagement from: Identifying problem / preventative measures --- Finding a doc --- Setting an appointment --- Not getting an estimate (lack of cost transparency) --- Getting to appointment --- The waiting room --- The interaction with doc (provider) --- Billing and insurance company.  Rinse, recycle, repeat.

WhiteGlove is a new model where members have care delivered to them at home or work, 365 days a year, 8am to 8pm. As a direct-pay primary care provider, members enjoy a comprehensive health care experience that includes primary/acute care, chronic care, wellness, diagnostics, and prescription medications.

With the complexity comes pain points as there is opportunity to transform the customer experience.  Everyone from the government, to the healthcare companies, to the community hospitals must work collectively and invest and value innovation to begin turning the ship.  Innovation must not only happen in a collaborative fashion across companies, but industries.  It is not one or two innovations that will change the conversation, it will be innovation to the way the healthcare system innovates that will change process and give anytime-anywhere care. Making you say, 'I get to see the doctor now.'

Why OptumHealth? Watch how we can help.

MISSION POSSIBLE

We at Carrot designed a booth for the UnitedHealth Group IT Summit behind the theme, 'Mission Possible.' The booths intent was to promote the new CIO (Chief Information Officer) Operating Model, a 12-step process participants learned at the booth through interactive games.

The value behind the CIO Model is: (1) More harmonious integration of business segments with IT; (2) Greater efficiency and cost savings; (3) Enhanced ability to move quickly and seize business opportunities. Each individual is an 'Agent of Change', making it possible to begin turning the large ship in the right direction of adopting the new process. Through takeaways and follow up communications, IT participants will be reminded why they are critical to the mission of the CIO Operating Model.

Optum: Tackling Engagement with the 5 Pillars of Well Being