While creating happy customers is one aspect of Naomi Simson’s business (and an important one), creating happy staff and stakeholders are equally critical components.

RedBalloon’s founder, Simson draws heavily on her experience as a senior marketer, having worked her way up over a 15-year period from marketing officer to product manager, marketing manager and director with well-known companies such as Ansett, IBM, KPMG and Apple. After leaving corporate life to become a mother, other priorities took hold and she decided to build her own workplace that people genuinely looked forward to attending every day.  Simson believes this is vital for long-term success and it’s something she is well versed in.  RedBalloon has secured a place in the list of Australia’s Best Places to Work produced by BRW four years in a row now.

RedBalloon are considered the pioneers of experiential gifting in Australia and New Zealand.

Although a recent arrival on the scene, here are some of the awards that they have won over the past few years:-

2013 –     #8 in the Top 50 BRW Best Places to Work in Australia (an award they are well and truly used to receiving) and one of only 9 companies to make this award 5 years in a row

2012 –     Secured a place in BRW Top 50 Best Places to Work in Australia.
BRW Fast 100 list from 2004 to 2009.  Red Balloon have also been a regular on the Deloitte Fast 50 for Australia, beginning in 2006.

2011 –     Australian Human Resources Institute HR Practitioner Of The Year – Awarded to RedBalloon Employee Experience Manager Megan Bromley.
-    Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award – Awarded to company founder Naomi Simson (2011 Eastern Region winner for the Industry category).

2010 –    Hewitt Best Employers – One of only six companies to receive recognition.

2008 –    Nokia Business Award for Innovation – Presented to Naomi Simson at the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.

There are numerous other awards too many to mention here, and they are all centred around training, culture, team building and innovation.

In her book ‘Five Thanks a Day,’ Naomi Simson has compiled a collection of stories on the ‘how-to’ and science of saying thank you, the concept of which she also attributes as part of her success.

The name behind Simson’s endeavour was inspired by the 1956 Oscar-winning French short film Le Ballon Rouge (“The Red Balloon”), which takes viewers on a series of journeys with a young boy named Pascal and a whimsical red balloon that begins to follow him through Paris. That red balloon, a vibrant symbol of fun and happiness throughout the film, laid the foundation for Simson’s dream venture.

“I wanted to test if a business could be successful by simply listening to its people and its customers, and focusing on what would get people talking: the giving and receiving of experiential gifts that create memories,” Simson says.

Now, twelve years later, the company Simson founded in her family home has flourished into a six-time BRW Fast Company that has garnered many more accolades for its work environment, gift offerings, and employee engagement.

In an effort to bring RedBalloon into the business sphere, a corporate incentive service was created that offers employees reward points that may be redeemed for cash credit on the RedBalloon website. There are approximately 3,000 clients involved in this innovative program including such corporate heavy hitters as Qantas, Virgin Mobile, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Origin Energy.

The work in this sector is not only rewarding for participating companies, but also for the RedBalloon employees coordinating the programs. “I have found my home in a business where they practice what they preach and ‘mix business with pleasure’,” says Matt Geraghty, General Manager of Corporate.

People Management

The work atmosphere at RedBalloon is just as upbeat and invigorating as the experiences they offer, and this is largely due to the high spirits of the employees.

“We believe that our people are our biggest competitive strength and, as a result, have shaped an award winning culture of fun, appreciation and recognition designed to attract and retain top talent,” says RedBalloon’s current CEO Kristie Buchanan.

A great deal of emphasis is placed on structuring the employees’ daily experiences to ensure that every work day is engaging and fulfilling.

“The framework – ‘Welcome. Tools. Grow. Flow. Appreciate’ – covers our approach to recruitment and on-boarding; what productivity tools we provide; how employees are kept connected to the flow of information; and finally, how they are recognised and challenged,” says Buchanan. “Our growth plans involve continuing to find more innovative ways to deliver meaningful experiences to our customers, our corporate clients and our employees. This could be in the form of products, in service delivery, in our marketing or technology.”

Check out for yourself why RedBalloon is one of Australia’s most sought after companies to work for and why it is also one of the fastest growing start-up brands in business today. I am sure it will give you food for thought. RedBalloon is another of the amazing companies we will be showcasing on our week long study tour in February of organisations that are changing the shape of the way we do business.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to join our February study tour and create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

I must admit I got caught out recently when I thought I was doing the right thing by this young tradesman. I needed some landscaping to be completed at the front of my property and it just so happened that at the same time I was considering my options, a young man (around 25 years) happened to drop by with a business card offering to quote me on the job. He had been doing some work in the area and noticed that I had been preparing my front yard for a major facelift. He seemed knowledgeable about his craft (landscaping and concreting) and was personable enough in a rough ‘tradie’ kind of way. Once I had seen his handiwork on some previous jobs, I felt comfortable he could complete the work to an acceptable level, so I decided to give him the opportunity. So far so good…

Given I did not know him personally, I wanted to make sure that I would receive fair value for money so we came to an arrangement that I would pay directly for any of the material needed (machinery hire; sand and soil supply; concrete delivery etc.), and he would charge me at a daily ‘labour-only’ rate for him and his mate which would allow me to keep within the budget I had set aside for the project. He told me in advance what the daily rate for the two of them would be and it seemed reasonable enough so the project commenced with me confident that I had covered all the bases and that we were both on the same page with our mutual expectations.

The first couple of days I needed to be off site in meetings so I didn’t get much opportunity to observe what my contractor and his mate were doing. Each day there was evidence of progress in the right direction albeit slower than I expected, so I assumed that things were on track and I paid him as I had agreed to do at the end of the first two days of work. By day four I was beginning to get concerned that the project did not seem to be progressing as fast as I had hoped but I put that concern down to me not being knowledgeable in the ways of landscaping. Whenever I raised my concerns with my young friend, he assured me that things were progressing well and his super confidence seemed to allay my fears enough for me to question myself and my expectations rather than him and his abilities. By now I felt we were two days behind where we needed to be if I was to keep within my budget, so I decided to remain around for the next day to observe first-hand the work that was being done for me by our landscaper and his helper.

At the end of day five, the penny had dropped for me.

Here’s what I witnessed. The general theme of ‘a days work’ by my young landscaper….

Arrive around 8.30-8.45 am. Take the next half hour preparing site works (i.e. unpack the ‘ute’ while chatting about the night before with his mate). Set tasks for the mate to complete while answering mobile phone calls for another half an hour. Do some work for about an hour before taking a break. Complete the morning break and work for another hour before leaving the site together at around 11.30 am to have lunch. Come back an hour later, and work until around 2.30 pm when it was time to clean up. Leave at around 3.00 pm (sometimes earlier I later discovered) to go and quote on other jobs.

As you (and I) will discover from this scenario, a day of work for two tradesmen consisted of probably only five to five and a half hours of actual work. The rest was made up of late arrival, long meal breaks and early finishes interrupted constantly by mobile phone calls and a lot of watching by the tradie’s mate while the tradie did the skilled work.

That evening I quizzed my young contractor what a ‘fair days work for a fair days pay’ meant to him, and much to my surprise he answered that if he is on site for four hours or less it is charged out at a half day rate, but anything over four hours was a full day regardless of how much time was spent on site working. When I mentioned that it seemed like I was actually paying for a full day for two of them for only 1.5 hours more that his half day rate he shrugged his shoulders and said ‘this was what we agreed on.’

And he was right!

In my eagerness to engage him and cover what I assumed was all the bases, I left out one very important aspect of our communication. At a daily ‘labour-only’ rate – what constituted a days work? I wonder if you have you ever been caught out like this as I was.

And here is the valuable lesson I learned from this recent episode. When giving freedom to people without framework built around that freedom, what you are actually doing is giving them licence not freedom. This is because freedom and autonomy without proper framework takes away accountability, and without accountability freedom for the individual is a fairly hollow experience for all concerned.

This recent experience of mine translates directly across to the workplace, especially with our fast changing workforce where we are attempting to create cultures filled with the young Gen Y whizz-kids of the future whom we want to attract and retain. In our rush to engage with them and their self belief that anything is possible for them (instilled into them via parents; schools and the media), we need to be very careful that we do not give them licence without framework in the name of self determination and autonomy. It is a fine line between the two but it can be a slippery slope if we are not more careful as their employers.

I guess you may be wondering what was the final outcome for my landscaping project? Instead of it being an enjoyable win-win experience for both of us, once my trust had been broken I believe it developed into a lose-lose experience instead. My project took double the expected amount of time to be completed and henceforth my budget blew out significantly, and the extra work that I had agreed my eager landscaper could do once the main project was completed was given to someone else to complete under tighter and more specific guidelines as a result. So my young landscaping friend got less work in the end and I paid more than expected.

Here is an excellent link to a blog written by a young and eager Gen Y achiever Kejia Zhu, an employee of Facebook. He’s a 29 year old guy who was born in China, grew up in the UK and now lives in America. Kejia wrote a blog this week which received a lot of attention worldwide because it speaks to the heart of the overblown expectations of the Gen Y generation and their search for instant success before they reach thirty. In his blog Kejia talks with a fair degree of insight about the value of patience and the wisdom that comes with age and years of experience in a world bludgeoned by stories of overnight fame and success.

When I read what Keija says about his 92 yo grandfather’s achievements and his own new-found insight into the meaning of success, it gives me heart that there is a place in this world for every generation if we are prepared to step back and honour the unique perspective that people of each each decade of learning and discovery brings to the table.

http://kzhu.net/does-life-end-at-35.html

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

Photo Credit – ‘Grandpa stealing wifi for his beloved iPad’  – Keija (@Kzhu)

Dr Sam Prince is a Scottish born, Australian medical Doctor with Sri Lankan heritage running a chain of Mexican restaurants. He’s an aid worker and founder of ‘One Disease at a Time’ which is currently on a mission to eradicate scabies from our indigenous communities. 

This incredible man started working in a Mexican restaurant while studying at medical school. He saw a gap in the market and started his own Mexican restaurant at the age of 21 whilst studying fulltime. He graduated medical school from Monash University and built up a chain of 17 restaurants, 170 staff and a turnover of $13.7m in between working full time as a doctor.  He is so passionate about helping others less fortunate than himself that he set up a program to help end hunger called ‘Plate 4 Plate’ where he partnered with a company called ‘Stop Hunger Now’ to make sure the money went to the right places.  Every burrito or salad purchased at Zambrero’s buys a meal for someone in a developing country.

This is what Dr Prince has to say about his philosophy:-

“We are not greedy and when you eat with us, neither are you. Every burrito or bowl you purchase, we pay it forward by helping provide a plate of food to someone less fortunate.  How?

Zambrero has been working with ‘Stop Hunger Now’ to help provide high protein, high vitamin meals that help strengthen people suffering malnutrition.

Every month, we add up all the burritos and bowls we have served at Zambrero and deliver the resources to provide meals to our distribution partner, ‘Stop Hunger Now,’ who provides the logistics to distribute the food relief to the areas most in need.

‘Plate 4 Plate’ is funded through the profits of Zambrero, which means we’re never going to ask you for money. All you have to do is enjoy any delicious meal from our fresh, healthy menu and we’ll donate a meal in return—a definite win-win!’

The program aims to feed ten million people each year.

Clearly, just feeding the world is not enough for Sam Prince. Off the back of the success of his rapidly-expanding group, Sam has also created the Emagine Foundation in 2007. They have built and equipped fifteen IT learning centres in rural Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Far North Queensland to date, ensuring that children in these areas are not prevented from accessing the education required to better their lives simply by virtue of their geographical location and socioeconomic circumstances. There are plans for one hundred centres across Asia Pacific by the end of 2014.

In 2009 Prince appointed his first CEO, Stuart Cook, to run the Mexican food chain. He’d met the then 23-year-old Cook on a bus on the way to the Taj Mahal. Prince was in India to pick up an award from the Junior Chamber International as one of the ten ‘Outstanding Young People of the World in 2008,’ in recognition of the aid work he’d done in South-East Asia and the public education campaigns he’d run in Sri Lanka to reduce the number of deaths from snake bites and dengue fever.

The Zambrero chain now has more than thirty restaurants and there are plans to build it globally to over one hundred restaurants in the next two years. Stuart has continued the great work started by Sam. In 2010 funding from Zambrero has allowed Sam to launch a multi-million dollar project, his not-for-profit organisation ‘One Disease at a Time,’ where he is also tackling a health issue closer to home:- the eradication of scabies, a disease prevalent in indigenous communities, where our indigenous children suffer from this disease at epidemic proportions.

Sam Prince intends to advance education and eradicate disease through ‘One Disease at a Time’ across the globe, starting with a three year ‘Healthy Skin Program’ in East Arnhem Land, and to demonstrate a best-practice model of partnering with (not working on) indigenous communities to create sustainable change.

“Sam Prince does the work of one hundred men, improving the lives of thousands through his innovative medical, business and aid projects,” stated GQ in naming him the 2011 Man of Chivalry in its annual Men of the Year list.

From the wise old age of 28, Prince admits to being fairly naïve when he first headed to Asia as a 21-year-old. He’d made a bit of money in business and wanted to give something back. He chose South-East Asia as the initial focus of his aid work because he’d seen the value that a free education had given his own parents who came from humble beginnings in Sri Lanka.

He learnt three significant lessons.

Lesson Number One:  Before you do any kind of aid work be sure that you have a clear understanding of what you believe is a basic human right vs what you believe is a basic human responsibility. There’s a clear line between the two, he says.  “As doctors we take the Hippocratic Oath of ‘First do no Harm’. If you actually don’t understand where that line is you can end up harming people by taking power away from them when you start doing things that you think are basic human responsibilities,” says Prince.

Lesson Number Two: When he thinks back to working in emergency departments in hospitals, Sam recalls the look of sheer desperation in the eyes of people wheeled into the emergency departments after suffering a medical emergency, such as a heart attack. He saw the same look in the eyes of the people he was helping. “It’s the eyes of people who are truly desperate for your help, money, time, effort, education or healthcare,” says Prince. “For me to sleep at night and to be able to look into the mirror and know that I’ve done things ethically every step of the way, I knew I could have no agenda. No political or financial or religious agenda. It is a value that we don’t ever cross.”

Lesson Number Three: You have to run an aid organisation with the same rigour as you would a business. “I thought that just because people were in need and needed a hand up that they were all good people,” he says. “The reality is that’s not the truth. People are good and bad, just like there are good and bad people in every other demographic.”

The idea behind ‘One Disease at a Time’ was sparked by a conversation with one of his mentors, Frank Bowden. The professor of medicine at the Australian National University Medical School had eradicated the sexually transmitted disease Donovanosis out of Australia permanently in four years at a cost of $4 million and ten staff. “That’s not a lot of money, time or resources and I thought ‘wow, that’s something I can do as a doctor, aid worker and entrepreneur’,” says Prince.  Professor Bowden now sits on the board of ‘One Disease at a Time.’

Professor Bowden says, “I am constitutionally suspicious of medical entrepreneurs who, in my experience, can put the pursuit of financial gain before the desire to care for their patients. The exact opposite applies to Sam. The son of one of my friends had been looked after by Sam in our emergency department one Saturday afternoon. My friend described the appearance of Sam amid the controlled chaos of the hospital as something like a magician waving his wand to create a bubble of peace and calm around his son. This is a special and rare talent.”

Through his work supported by funding from Zambrero, Sam intends to achieve his dream of providing the infrastructure and opportunity for disadvantaged young people across the globe to empower themselves through good health and a quality education. Sam’s success in business derives from an unusual ability to visualise practical solutions to seemingly vast problems, and to drive these through implementation through a calculated approach and by force of willpower and inspiring others to believe in his vision.

Samantha Cran, Chief Executive Officer of ‘One Disease at a Time,’ first met Prince at a business/networking event. She recalls being taken aback by his ability to translate his core values into actions and felt she had to be part of the movement. She started as a volunteer before becoming the CEO.

“Sam is the ultimate definition of an entrepreneur,” says Cran. “Whether it’s in business or healthcare, for each industry he is the visionary who can see a gap in the market before others do and then diligently backs himself in to fill it. He also has the tenacity to push through any barriers – it is this ‘will’ that people recognise early and are truly inspired by it.”

Prince puts the willingness of others to get involved down to him wearing his dreams on his sleeves.

“By virtue of claiming it and saying, ‘I want to do this’, and being open about it, this activates the people around you,” says Prince.

Dr Prince is also a sought-after speaker on both a local and international stage. His achievements have been recognised through a number of awards including the 2012 ACT Young Australian of the Year; the Junior Chambers International ‘Outstanding Young Person of the World;’ the 2008 National My Business Awards ‘Best Young Gun in Business;’ and the 2008 Canberra Business Council Excellence Award. In 2011 he received the Weary Dunlop Fellowship.

It seems that Dr Sam Prince is taking the Hippocratic oath of ‘First do no Harm’ to a whole new level of thinking…. meaning ‘First do no Harm and then do Massive Good.’

You can also read more about what Sam Prince and other business entrepreneurs like him are doing with regard to making money and making a difference on the website of Leaders of Distinction which along with Precision Profiling is showcasing the new breed of entrepreneurs arriving on the scene today.

What are your thoughts on the work and success of Dr Sam Prince? I’d love to hear them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

When you think of some of the world’s most admired brands, there have been precious few who have lasted the distance remaining consistently near the top of all the “best” lists for the whole of their corporate life since inception. We have witnessed many burst on to the scene from nowhere only to disappear from view within a decade or so. And quite a few have remained in the public eye as product/service innovators one year; top financial performers another; employers of choice at other times; and maybe even good corporate citizens on other occasions.

But to be recognised as consistently high achievers in the triple bottom line of Financial, Social and Environmental performance takes a special kind of company with a special kind of culture and ‘servant leadership’ who understand the true meaning of ‘stewardship’ and all that it represents. In my opinion there is one company in the USA that has remained the stand-out performer for almost all of its 42 years in an industry littered with failures, and it continues to outperform on its “R.O. Double I” to this day. And no, it is neither a hi-tech nor an IT based company. It plies its trade in a brown fields industry that has been around for decades.

If I told you that this company has managed to maintain a special place in the heart of its millions of customers and the community at large every year with a workforce that numbers over 40,000 then its achievements become even more amazing given that this gives it 40,000 opportunities every hour of every day to ‘get things wrong.’ Invariably it gets it right 99% of the time.

This company continues to gather awards and accolades in all of the triple bottom line measurements that matter most year-in, year-out with a consistency of performance that is unsurpassed. I am talking about one of the World’s Most Admired Companies according to Fortune Magazine’s annual survey of corporate reputations (on the ‘Most Admired’ list every year since 1994 and all but twice in the ‘Most Admired’ Top 10); which is consistently awarded as ‘One of the Best Places to Work;’ ‘One of the Most Respected Corporations in the Community;’ a consistent ‘Green Leader’ on sustainability measures; a Positively Outrageous Service provider (that title is a clue); and a record holder for the longest running profitability streak in its industry with an unprecedented 40 consecutive years of profits and sustained operational excellence. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that when Forbes completed its exhaustive market research in 2012 of the USA’s most desired brand, according to both men and women, this brand won the coveted #1 position.

The amazing brand that I speak of is none other than SWA – Southwest Airlines.

The low-cost (not ‘cheap and nasty’) airline universally recognised and feted for a plethora of “bests” across the whole gamut of Key Performance Indicators:–

• Best on-time performance
• Best baggage handling
• Fewest flight cancellations
• Fastest gate turn-around
• Lowest employee turnover rates in its industry
• Fewest industry customer complaints/highest ratings
• Over 60% market dominance in every city-city route it enters
• One of USA’s safest airlines and newest fleets
• Stock value consistently rising decade after decade
• Most worker/shareholder millionaires
• Growth of 20-30% pa in an airline industry littered with failures
• Standard and Poors rating that is one of the best in its industry
• Innovations in operational procedures, initial web design and on-line ticketing that turned the industry on its head.

And over those forty years of unabated profits it has all been achieved without the need to resort to lay-offs or pay cuts. That is a remarkable feat unmatched in US aviation history.

So how does Southwest Airlines do it? What makes its business model and its brand recognition and reverence so successful one might ask?

The most obvious answer is often found with the spiritual head of an organisation – the CEO. And Southwest Airlines had both a CEO and a 2-ic who almost reached mythical status during their time at the top over 35 of those 42 years. The co-founder, one time lawyer Herb Kelleher (President) and his 2-ic, one time legal secretary Colleen Barrett (Director of Culture) have created a culture built around fun and love (NYSE moniker – LUV) by never taking themselves seriously, hiring people with a sense of humour, and espousing a theory of delivering Positively Outrageous Service whilst achieving it all at the lowest possible operating costs, in the fledgling years out of necessity and ultimately as an industry game-changer. You can’t do that unless you engage your people and all of their diversity at a level of productivity and service where they are the difference that makes the difference in a ‘no- frills, low-fare, high-frequency’ airline with their good-natured attitude and ‘can do’ work ethic. To top it off, Southwest Airlines has always been a fully unionised workforce, so there are no corners cut through contracted or underpaid labour. I had the undoubted pleasure of witnessing this culture first hand over a period of seven years in the mid 90s when I led my world best practice study tours to the USA and Europe.

The Southwest operation and its head office at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, was always a favourite destination of mine because walking into their head office and touring their group departments for the day was like walking into a combination of an evangelical revival meeting and a Disney theme park all rolled into one, especially if one visited during Halloween.

The joy, the fun and the sense of camaraderie was palpable every single time. It literally jumped out at you off the walls of the place and was replicated in every personal story, every piece of written material, and every wall covered in photos and plaques and newspaper clippings and wacky stories everywhere you looked. This was not a contrived scene, it was organic. I know because I and my tour guests experienced it consistently year after year and I still have the photos and videos to prove it. What’s more, we never witnessed anything quite like it in any other best practice company elsewhere in the world in all of the fifteen tours I led over that seven year period, and certainly not in a ‘corporate’ environment with over 30,000 staff at that time. And remember – it was consistently profitable and consistently outperforming its competition in all of the industry benchmarks that mattered.

I once mused on one of my many visits back then whether this amazing environment would remain so special once its much loved co-founder Herb Kelleher and his ‘keeper of the culture,’ Colleen Barrett, finally retired and exited the scene. I was assured by anyone at SWA whom I happened to ask that there was ‘never any chance of the culture of love, fun, self sacrifice and passion abating,’ and they were right. Both Herb and Colleen have been gone from the scene for over six years now, and by all available measures the culture and the achievements – financial, social and societal – continue to this day. I believe this is because between Herb and Colleen, and their many thousands of colleagues, they not only led by example from the front, but they crafted a corporate architecture that focused on the highest aspirations of love; fun; service; humility and self deprecating humour that left no room for arrogance or false pride in its make-up. And they selected, hired, and trained accordingly.

From my observations, way back in the late 80s and early 90s, Southwest Airlines was the only company which could boast a company director at the highest level of seniority who was responsible as chief custodian of ‘culture.’ Ms Barrett headed up the committee whose sole focus was to ‘spread, keep and enrich the company culture and family spirit.’ I wonder if even today there are that many public corporations as significant as SWA who venerate and resource culture as a specific focus separate to their HR department or things of that ilk? As Colleen Barrett said herself back then, “Basically we hire attitudes. People don’t think of working for this company as a mere job. It’s a cause.” They actively seek out fun loving people who think outside the box in an industry where strict governance and uncompromising rules of safety must apply, and yet this does not detract from their enviable record of efficiency, safety and productivity, it enhances it.

In the words of Gary Kelly, the current Chairman of the Board, CEO and President, “With a Warrior Spirit, a Servant’s Heart, and Fun-LUVing Attitude, our nearly 46,000 employees create the unique Southwest culture that continues to maintain the excellence we have built up over four decades with our brand (in the form of Customer Service, Operational Excellence, Community Engagement and Consecutive Annual Profits)… We are committed to our purpose – to connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable and low-cost air travel. It is that purpose that will guide us forward in pursuit of our vision to become The World’s Most Loved, Most Flown, and Most Profitable Airline.”

Southwest bonds its employees to one another by shared values that include such traditional virtues as integrity, trust and altruism. For the worker ‘evangelists’ at SWA, it isn’t just a job it’s a crusade. And if the key to a highly successful brand is the level of trust that it engenders in the community then Southwest Airlines has turned trust into an organisational art-form through consistently Aligning the Attitudes; Being the Behaviours and Managing the Message.

What are the three elements that drive that intrinsic brand trust? I believe that it can best be described as:-

•    Trust in one’s Competence (organisationally this may be represented by operating efficiency and safety)
•    Trust in one’s Commitment (organisationally this may be represented by service, pricing, and customer experience)
•    Trust in one’s Character (organisationally this may be represented by community engagement and support)

Southwest Airlines doesn’t just strive to achieve outstanding results in the triple bottom line of Financial, Social and Environmental performance. Nor does it lay claim to winning various awards in these areas while it hides anything less than optimal from its public. It actively and transparently engages in measuring its results in these three areas each financial year in the form of its ‘Southwest Airlines One Report’ which lists all of the good, bad and the ugly KPIs under the triple headings of:– Performance (financial and operational); People (cultural and social); and Planet (environmental and societal).

R.O. ‘Double’ I

In the work that I have been doing in this area of R.O.I.+I. (Return on Investment and Integrity) or ‘conscious capitalism’ as it has also been termed, I have begun to notice that companies are finally beginning to have quite a unique approach to key areas of business that until this millennium, were almost non-existent. (The old paradigms of R.O.I.; growth for growth sake; command and control; headcount on a balance sheet; and a focus on ‘giving back’ only after the shareholder returns and executive bonuses have been fully accounted for, and where corporate citizenship fell under the banner of public affairs/PR, are still widely in evidence as the main order of the day, but thankfully this is slowly changing.)

In no particular order, these changes in thinking with a differentiated approach fall under the general headings of:- Innovation; Engagement; Environment; Servant Leadership; Culture and Mythology, and are built around a Noble Cause as the new sustainable model of business (Financial and Operational best practices assumed). What I have been discovering is that companies that are changing our world and the way we do business, are coming from a much larger paradigm of heart-centeredness interwoven into the hard edged fabric of sustainable financial results. Such things go hand in hand. They are no longer mutually exclusive. Many (but not all) of these leaders are coming out of the ranks of business entrepreneurs who have only entered the workforce since 2000. They are a new breed of leader and they want to make a difference to all lives, not just their own. What’s more, they have the technological means and the social media street smarts to do so.

Logos, Pathos and Ethos

If we go right back to the time of the Greek philosopher Aristotle we will see evidence of this thinking as the source of influence, in the form of Logos (Intellect); Pathos (Emotion) and Ethos (Character). For too many years now we have witnessed only the Logos or rational approach to business sustainability. During the 90s, we began to see evidence of the Pathos or emotional appeal becoming part of the fabric of business in the form of customer service, employee engagement and cultural values as a focus. But now I believe that with the turn of the millennium we are beginning to witness the third critical element come to the fore in the form of Ethos or ethical behaviour in its broadest sense as an integral part of the new business model.

Back in the 90s, Southwest Airlines was one of the pioneering few profit-generating organisations that was doing the unthinkable…bringing ‘fun and love’ into the boardroom.

Some people view this idea of ‘conscious capitalism’ (or R.O.I.+I. as I call it) as idealistic and impractical. In their view the business world is a tough and brutal ‘dog-eat-dog’ world. To them, this is just a pipe dream – wishful thinking for the woolly headed idealists. In fact this way of doing business not only creates wellbeing for all stakeholders but it also creates sustained high performance. Traditional businesses that compete against an authentic socially conscious business soon discover just how strong, resolute and resilient these enterprises can be.  Just ask any executive of some of the now bankrupt or defunct airlines in the USA who marched to the beat of the older drums, what it was like to compete against Southwest Airlines in its own backyard for the last 40 years.

I will end this longer-than-usual article with the words of Herb Kelleher in his ‘Message to the Field’ back in the 90s in one of his famous addresses to his Southwest employees:–

“When you’re sitting around with your grandchildren, I want you to be able to tell them that being connected to Southwest Airlines was one of the finest things that ever happened to you in your entire life.

I want you to be able to say, ‘Southwest Airlines ennobled and enriched my life; it made me better, and bigger and stronger than I ever could have been alone.’

And if, indeed, that happens with your grandchildren, then that will be the greatest contribution that I could have made to Southwest Airlines and to its future.”

What are your thoughts on ‘R.O.I.+I.’ and the amazing SWA story? I’d love to hear them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

And where there is an Information Resource Centre where books are borrowed and returned on an ‘honour’ system; where there are no bells or buzzers because the students are responsible for their own time keeping; and where appreciative enquiry, team teaching and collaborative study in an open learning environment is the order of the day. If you remember those old school days between 15 and 18 years of age when you sat in dreary classrooms while the teacher stood at the front and filled you full of information that you had to commit to memory and regurgitate at appropriate times, then it’s time to consider a new form of student utopia.

Because here in Melbourne, Victoria, we have a new style of teaching which goes to the core of what ‘education’ should be all about. If you consider that the word education originates from the Latin root ‘educare’ which means ‘to lead or draw out,’ not ‘to push in’ as most of our educational models of earlier times seem to reflect, you may begin to gain an inkling of what our newest secondary educative model for students from Years 9-12 is aspiring to achieve.

This is no experimental laboratory of learning. It happens to be one of our newest and most ground-breaking educational institutions, in the form of Nossal High School, built and opened as recently as 2010 by our Victorian Government as one of only four unique Selective Entry Schools in the state. Student competition to gain entry to this open learning environment is fierce (likewise the teaching staff), and the high achieving, socially aware and community minded alumni that Nossal is producing is testament to an environment where discussion and debate across a wide range of subjects with a wide range of peers is the norm. Nossal’s truly unique environment gives students the freedom to utilise ‘break out spaces’ around the school during class times, to independently study or meet with teachers for advice and support.

When you walk through the school, you will marvel at the open plan teaching spaces; the light, bright and airy feel to the whole physical environment; the internet cafe style study areas; the whiteboard tabletops for group project brainstorming; the many informal lounge areas for ‘chilling out;’ the casual teachers’ offices furnished with comfortable lounges for students wishing to have ‘one-on-ones’ with their selected teacher; the adaptable physical spaces that convert in a few minutes from auditorium to smaller, more intimate ensemble areas; the breakfast, tea and coffee facilities conveniently located around the common areas for students to avail themselves; and the extremely well equipped specialist teaching facilities.

Whether it be physical education, music, english, the sciences, maths, cooking, drama, languages, humanities or other elective subjects, the student-centric, learning-rich physical facilities are state of the art. The school even has a wonderfully equipped IT resource department that is solely there for students and teachers to leave their computers or other IT paraphernalia for hardware repair or software de-bugging or system set-up as the case may be.

But what is most striking when you explore the community is the quiet confidence of the students actively engaged with teachers and each other in an open learning environment or walking purposefully to their next study elective, ubiquitous iPad in hand, in a respectful atmosphere of collegial enquiry and discovery. When you stop and ask any student at random, what they do for fun outside of ‘classroom’ time, you will invariably hear the answer that ‘the whole experience of learning is fun here’, so the lines are very blurred between what constitutes schoolwork vs free time at Nossal High School.

In the pursuit of individual excellence via an environment that allows students to grow step by step to reach their full potential, not only do students learn from their teachers but also the teachers learn from their students. In the words of Nossal High School’s organisational ethos, “We believe that teachers and students are forces that exist for each other and therefore promote and encourage an environment where both staff and students are treated equally with respect and understanding.”

The school’s curriculum is based on Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner’s principles of the ‘Five Minds for the Future,’ (Gardner, 2008) and it achieves this through exceptional learning, outstanding teachers, gifted and talented students and an innovative and dynamic adult learning environment. This is a philosophy that future leaders will need to develop certain cognitive abilities, which Gardner defines as the ‘five minds:-’ the disciplined mind; the synthesizing mind; the creative mind; the respectful mind; and the ethical mind. As Nossal High School’s website states, each domain is explored under this framework, so that students gain a high level of analytical thinking in a way that doesn’t limit their learning.

The Disciplined Mind – Individuals will need to be an expert in one area – they will need to develop depth and breadth in specific disciplines.
The Synthesising Mind – Individuals will need to be able to gather together information from disparate sources, find links, transfer and communicate this knowledge.
The Creative Mind - Individuals will be rewarded for being creative – that is the ability to construct a box and think outside of it, and approach problems in unique ways.
The Respectful Mind – The world of today and tomorrow is becoming increasingly diverse. Accordingly it is imperative to respect differences and similarities and promote tolerance and understanding, hence the significance of Physical, Personal and Social learning.
The Ethical Mind - Individuals need to be able to act ethically – that is to think beyond their own self interest and to do what is right under the circumstances.

Even the naming of the school was chosen with much thought invested into the process.

Sir Gustav Nossal is an internationally renowned scientist and a significant figure in Australia’s medical and scientific community. He was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (1965-1996), Professor of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne and President of the Australian Academy of Science.

Gus Nossal has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career. He was knighted in 1977 for his ground-breaking work in immunology and made a companion of the Order of Australia in 1989. He was awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 1990 and in 1996 he won the highly prized Koch Gold Medal for major advances in biomedical science. He has been identified as one of Australia’s national living treasures.

He has been listed in annual Australia Day Honours four times, including as Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989, ‘For services to medicine, to science and to the community,’ and a Centenary Medal Winner, ‘For distinguished service to the study of antibody formation and immunological tolerance’ in 2000, when he was also named Australian of the Year.

It is fitting therefore, that the school is named after Sir Gustav Nossal, such a prominent and inspirational figure who believes in state education and has brought true benefit to the world. He continues to be an active champion of the school and its work, and at the beginning of each year he is an enthusiastic attendee at the opening assembly to present badges to the newest intake of Year 9 students.

The school’s Information Resource Centre, as the educational hub of the school, holds an extensive range of print as well as digital resources to complement the curriculum being delivered at Nossal. The IRC also holds an extensive fiction collection, general non-fiction books as well as audio visual resources and equipment.  The programmes being delivered by the IRC are wide and varied. Complementing the guest speakers and performers who visit the school throughout the year, the Information Resource Centre also runs a range of interesting and exciting programs and competitions for the all-round development of the students.

Given that we live in a cyber-connected world, Nossal High School aims to empower students to become ethical ‘cybercitizens,’ who approach the use of IT and e-learning in a systematic, disciplined and respectful manner. They are encouraged to challenge data and synthesize their findings. As the schools says, ‘A Nossal Cybercitizen knowingly adopts cyber ethical approaches when digitally interacting at local, national, regional and global levels. The overall philosophy is to use e-Learning and ICT to develop responsible, ethical student learning pathways in Virtual Learning Environments, the intranet and the World Wide Web. The digital pathways are to be used to develop logical thinking, problem solving, collaborative techniques, ability to synthesise and creativity in our students.’

Through the use of IT, underpinned by Cyber ethics, the school is challenging the students to become knowledgeable about the nature of information, comfortable with new technology and, able to recognise its relevance and potential. Cyber ethics is defined as the values, beliefs and behaviours needed to ensure safe, responsible and respectful use of digital technology.

This is the future of education that I envisage for our children if we are to create a world that is going to be sustainable for generations to come and where the focus is not purely on growth for growth sake and the insatiable consumption and global inequity that comes from such a single-minded approach to the modern economic reality.

It is fortunate that pockets of our world are now inhabited by educational institutions like Nossal High School. It is my fervent wish that this and others like it will be the model of educational best practice that public and private schools alike will aspire to become, because students that graduate from these secondary schools and on to tertiary study are the leaders we will be looking to in the future. Maybe one day, instead of a handful of secondary schools like Nossal, we will see centres of learning of this ilk spread throughout our communities. I hope so.

What are your thoughts on the future of education? I’d love to read them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to select the right people for your roles and how to leverage that knowledge for the benefit of them and your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

This happened to a global resource company client of mine a couple of years ago. They had advertised for a senior engineer to fulfil the role of Project Manager for all of their major feasibility studies that were in the pipeline. The person they had shortlisted had all of the right experience and qualifications, and had recently been employed in a role at another company that involved major project oversight. Prior to that, this candidate had a succession of business development type roles which relied on his engineering experience and training. According to my client he seemed like the right person for the job. Certainly he seemed to ‘tick all the right boxes,’ but there was something that didn’t quite seem to gel in their due diligence and so they asked me for my assessment. It concerned the fact that the two reference checks they had undertaken were throwing up anomalies that they could not reconcile and they wanted to know why. Here is what I discovered…

After profiling the candidate which included both quantitative on-line testing as well as a two hour discussion and qualitative assessment of his language patterns, I was able to confidently report to my client that neither of the previous employers were lying, and that both were correct in their personal assessment of the candidate’s performance. It depended less on whether he had the competency to undertake the role and more on his motivational preferences as to how he was motivated to use the skills he had and process his model of the world. His ‘motivational fingerprint’ if you will. Here is what I said…

    … “For the Project Oversight role where project leadership involves conceptual analysis and strategy, detailed risk assessment, systemic thinking followed by a properly structured plan of action taking into account all of the competing factors, the candidate has the experience and training but his ‘motivational fingerprint’ does not support him working in this way.”

Across the board he had rated motivational patterns like Concept and Structure; Reflection and Patience (i.e. Thinking before Acting); Focus on Information and Systems; Problem Solving (Risk Mitigation); Evolution (i.e. Gradual Change and Development); and Depth Orientation as quite low in his preferences. His language patterns in the discussion we had, reinforced this assessment of mine. Note: This is not to say that he was not trained nor competent in these disciplines. It is just that it was not his preferred way of working or using his skills.

    … “For the Business Development role where leadership involves the ability to seek out new development opportunities; make quick decisions; initiate action; and drive a team towards a long term goal, the candidate exhibits all of the action-oriented patterns one would expect to see as part of his motivational make-up, both in his quantitative assessment and in my qualitative assessment of our discussion.”

Across the board he had rated highly the following motivational patterns which indicated a strong preference for speed and action:- Focus on Activity; Initiation; Use (i.e. Jumping into Action); Convinced Automatically; Convinced by Doing (as opposed to Reading; Seeing or Listening); Difference (i.e. a preference for Rapid and Discontinuous change) and Goal Orientation.

Once I had shared my assessment with my client, it quickly became obvious to them why the manager who had employed the candidate in a Project Oversight role rated his performance so poorly and why the manager who had employed him in a Business Development role would hire him again tomorrow if the opportunity presented itself.

Both were telling the truth in the context of the role the candidate had performed for them previously, just as much as two people looking at a car accident from different perspectives and vantage points will describe the same scene differently, even though the reality of the crash was identical.

So the decision that was presented to my client quickly became a no-brainer as a result. The only question that needed to be addressed was whether the role for which they were hiring him was more of a Project Oversight role or a Business Development role, even though the candidate was equally skilled for both.

Given that the role at the resource company was a closer motivational fit to the one the candidate had reportedly underperformed in, the observation was made that this candidate might not be the right person for that role. Another more suitable candidate was subsequently chosen. This was not only the right decision for the employer but also in the best interests of the candidate regardless of his personal wishes.

Placing a ‘square peg in a round hole’ is not only a potential risk for the employer but also potentially highly stressful for the employee involved. As employees we should always aim to work towards our preferences and strengths that we develop as a result of those preferences, otherwise we will only invite feelings of boredom or inadequacy within ourselves.

Here is the challenge for employers however:–

All too often I observe that organisations only select or promote based on very limited criteria….

1. Competency – can they do the job?
2. Previous Experience – has someone else said they can do the job?
3. Gut Feeling – do we think they can do the job?
4. Rapport – do we like them enough to want them to do the job?
5. Performance over Time – after 3-6 months of trial and error, will we discover if they can do the job?

The missing ingredients in all of this which are crucial to the final decision are the Attitudes and Motivations of the Individual. i.e. Are they the right fit/best fit for the role? These measures are the most important and effective predictors of job performance, and employers ignore this fact at their peril.

As a result of ground-breaking research and development in psychometric testing over the past ten years, it is now possible to predict with a certain degree of confidence, how an executive will be most likely motivated to perform, behave and communicate in his/her specific work environment. This means that you can now unlock the motivational code for improving engagement, effectiveness and performance in the workforce from the highest to the most basic levels of employment. Not only can we now measure what motivates someone at work, but also to what degree and by how much these drivers motivate them, compared to the rest of the standard population.

The knowledge that a company gleans from these insights is a proven recipe for more incisive and effective candidate selection or promotion, and for more targeted information into successful ‘on-boarding’ or personal career development. This assists immeasurably in ensuring that an organisation’s external candidate/ internal succession selection processes are conducted at world’s best practice levels.

What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to read them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to select the right people for your roles and how to leverage that knowledge for the benefit of them and your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

Two young fish were swimming in one direction when they happened to meet an older fish heading the other way. The older fish nods at them and says… “Morning boys. How’s the water?” The younger fish swim on for a bit and eventually one of them turns to the other and says… “What the hell is water?”  Even though this story told by award-winning novelist David Foster Wallace is all about ‘missing the obvious’ it also a salutary lesson about context and how it defines meaning. Fish are defined by their water environment. Without it they wouldn’t exist, but as the story goes, it is so pervasive in their lives that they remain blissfully unaware of it even though they exist only because of it. And so it is with people. We are who we are because of the context in which we find ourselves, and that can have a huge impact on the type of profiling assessments organisations use in recruitment, and why I believe it is wise to steer clear of ‘personality profiles.’

Based on my research, I believe it is wrong to assume that ‘personality profiling’ is an accurate indicator of performance. You may not have heard of the ‘Broken Windows’ theory, but it is an excellent example of how context defines meaning and motivation, and how its application during the 90s dramatically arrested the crime epidemic in New York City. Broken Windows was the brainchild of criminologists James Wilson and George Kelling. They both argued that the crime epidemic was the inevitable result of environmental disorder. For example, if a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by it every day in that community will conclude that no one cares and that therefore no one is in charge. Soon more windows will be broken sending a signal that anything goes leading to other ‘minor’ crimes such as aggressive begging, graffiti proliferation, minor misdemeanours and so on until there is a major breakdown in law and order. This theory says that crime is contagious and it starts with a broken window and spreads to an entire community.

In the early nineties when William Bratton, a disciple of the Broken Windows theory, was first appointed as the Transit Police Chief and charged with the responsibility of cleaning up the crime epidemic on the New York subways, he focused first on cleaning up the graffiti and the estimated 170,000 daily fare evaders rather than the more serious issues of violence confronting the subway system. Arrests for misdemeanours for the kind of minor offenses that went unnoticed in the past, went up fivefold between 1990 and 1994, and as a result the Transit Police began to turn around the experience of citizens being safe on the subway.

After the election of Mayor Giuliani in 1994, Bratton was appointed head of the NYPD and he applied the same strategies to the city at large. He instructed his officers to crack down on the minor ‘quality of life’ crimes that bedevilled the city such as public drunkenness; public urination; littering; graffiti vandalism; aggressive window washing at intersections etc. and before long, crime in the city fell as quickly and as dramatically as it had on the subways. Even though Bratton and his likeminded peers were originally told to focus on the things that really mattered such as violent crimes and murders, they had the courage of their convictions and eventually their approach laid the foundation of the vibrant and relatively safe city that Manhattan is today.

I know this from first-hand experience because during the mid 90s when I was leading my World Best Practice Study Tours, our weekends in the USA were often spent in New York, and on many occasions I walked the streets of Manhattan after midnight feeling totally at ease and safe, plus I also took a few very late night rides on the subway and never felt intimidated by the experience. I can’t say that I would feel as safe walking around the streets of my own city, Melbourne after 10 pm on a Saturday night as I would in New York.

I was so impressed by my personal experience that on subsequent study tours I led my groups of Australian executives to other police departments which had applied their own version of the NYPD strategy. In particular we undertook visits to the inner sanctum of the Chicago Police Department to study their Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy universally known as CAPS which has been recognized as one of the most ambitious and successful community policing initiatives in the USA.

So what is the point of these examples that I am sharing with you here? Well this week we have finally heard the details of the allegation that one of our most respected AFL football clubs had been running a programme of systematic testing of supplements on their team of elite footballers over the previous couple of years. An internal investigation by the club itself resulted in findings that were damning of the club’s governance in allowing a “pharmacologically experimental” environment (their words) to occur within its organisation.

This regimen included weekly injections of multiple substances off-site from the football club without proper medical oversight from the club’s medical staff, all in the name of cutting edge ‘sports science.’ To compound the issue, the poor quality of record keeping and lack of proper protocol was such that it has been difficult for the authorities investigating the matter over the past six months to determine precisely what was given to whom over the period of time in question. The club leadership has since acknowledged officially that, “…(there were) mistakes in terms of governance and people management, and we apologise for them.” I definitely do not intend to comment any further on the pros and cons of what went on at that football club because I am sure that it has been well and truly ‘sliced and diced’ from every possible angle in the media this past six months since the story first broke. What has brought the whole sorry saga to a head, I believe, is the anonymous talk-back call from a concerned mother of one of the younger players involved, wrought with distress over the possible long term side-effects on the future health and well being of her son. After hearing her sobbing call on the radio late last week, I am sure no caring parent could avoid being moved by the genuine fear that these young men may be facing in the future with regard to their physical and emotional health, and the issue of workplace health and safety and informed consent that seemed to have been missed in the rush to gain a competitive edge on the field.

This brings me to the point of my blog – the amazing power that ‘context’ or environment holds over one’s individual motivation and how it could be that professional athletes at the peak of their careers would allow themselves to be experimented upon, week in week out, in clinics and locations away from the open and transparent environment of their football club. These are highly motivated young men spanning in age between late teens up to late twenties and early thirties and while some of them may be young and naive and at the beginning of their careers, others would have been around the professional football environment long enough and of a mature enough age to question in more detail what they were being subjected to. The reason why such highly professional athletes with highly tuned levels of motivation and self preservation would be prepared to subject themselves to being uninformed ‘guinea pigs’ in a climate of experimentation without due consideration given to their own health and safety tells a lot about the power of environment on individual motivation. i.e. “If all of my peers and fellow team mates are agreeing to this regime of weekly supplement injections, and if our coach whom we revere and  cohorts of his are leading the way in this experimentation to give us the edge on the football field then it must be okay for me. Besides – who am I to buck the team ethos of doing ‘Whatever it Takes’ to win the ultimate team prize – AFL Championship glory at the end of the season?”

If you or I were to be faced with the same decision to be injected with unknown (and in some cases unproven and highly experimental) substances on a weekly basis in order to improve our performance at work, I know what the answer would be. A big, fat, “You’ve got to be kidding me -  NO,”  I expect. And if we were pressed on the issue we would probably go running to the authorities screaming about the employer’s right to play ‘Big Brother’ and put us into this situation. In the cold hard light of day, I imagine that not one of those professional footballers would agree to such a preposterous idea, if indeed they were faced with the same request to give uninformed consent to their employer to experiment on them as an isolated individual. I assume that their motivation for self preservation would take precedence over their motivation to win at all costs.

This is the key to motivation in the workplace and why the profiling that I do focuses on motivation within the context of a given role and environment and not on the reliance that some organisations have on ‘personality profiles’ because that type of testing just doesn’t have validity. To assume that anyone would have the same motivation or behavioural style within all contexts is a fallacy. Current research says otherwise, and so does common sense in my opinion. Next time, as an employer, if you hear yourself saying, ‘why can’t we find motivated staff?’ or your recruitment people write those employment ads that ask for ‘motivated, self starters,’ you need to take a dose of the reality pill and ask yourself this question… “Motivated to do what and under what context?”

There is so much more I could write about this topic of motivation in the workplace, and certainly today our more enlightened leaders are learning the lessons about creating the right environment for people within their midst to flourish, rather than succumbing to the illusion that it is their job to lead from the front of the parade as if being a champion is all that it takes for others to follow. A colleague of mine, Anita Kropacsy, has been researching this topic of ‘Strength-Based Leadership’ where the creation of a values-driven environment that encourages creative people to channel their motivation towards doing meaningful work is the key to the sustainability of our companies of the future, and I must say, her discoveries on the essence of modern day leadership in this rapidly changing world  dovetails exactly with the work I have been doing on how to uncover and assess individual motivation in the workplace.

If all it takes is a heroic ‘champion’ leader leading from the front, then I would remind you of the saga currently facing the football club that I am referring to in this article. This is because the coach that has led this ill-advised lurch to the very edges of experimentation on its players is indeed a modern day, well respected ‘champion’ of the game and celebrated hero of the club whom I believe had reached almost mythical proportions in the eyes of some of his football playing peers – a recognised champion for whom winning was the only prize worth having I suspect, and whose point of view no one had the temerity or strength to override.  If the coach who was driving this programme of supplement experimentation was your average ‘Joe’ who didn’t come with the aura of success surrounding him, I wonder if all of the players would have fallen quite so quickly into line?

When it comes to motivation – everything is contextual, including the culture of leadership that is in play. We ignore this fact at our peril.

I would love to read your thoughts and comments here on this subject of motivation vs context.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the right environment for your people so that their motivation is channelled in the most appropriate way for all concerned.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

There’s a new word to describe a wonderful movement that started here in Melbourne just five years ago which has been taking our country by storm. Idealisation – The Realisation of an Ideal through an Idea whose time has come. The cause that I speak of is Thankyou Water – until recently a little known social enterprise which is destined to have a global impact on the provision of safe water to those communities for whom safe drinking water, staple food and basic hygiene is a non-existent commodity. I know that the catch-phrase ‘Social Entrepreneurism’ has been bandied about to explain this new breed of thinking where ‘making a difference’ in the world goes well beyond just plain charity, but I believe that this new description of mine, “Idealisation,”  better describes the essence of what this amazing young team of social entrepreneurs is all about. Here’s a short history of their incredible journey so far…

Co-Founders Jarryd, Dan and Justine

To quote directly from their own material… “In 2008, Thankyou Water was started by a group of five university students, led by 19 year old Dan Flynn. He felt the urgency to help people in developing countries in South East Asia and Africa who don’t have access to safe water. What Dan discovered is that each year Australians spend $600 million on bottled water and yet, over 743 million people a year don’t have access to safe drinking water, resulting in the death of 2 million people (mainly children) and a day-to-day struggle to survive for those still alive. Thankyou Water exists to bring real change into the developing world…

…Thankyou Water’s mission is to provide average Australians with a chance to help those in need, by a simple process of purchasing a bottle of Thankyou Water. For every bottle of Thankyou Water purchased, at least one months worth of safe water is provided to someone in need somewhere in the developing world.”

The way that Thankyou Water has its impact is not by means of charitable donations from you the public, but by competing as a social enterprise in the bottled water market to make as much profit as possible for the sole purpose of funding water projects in some of the worst affected areas of the world. The projects that 100% of Thankyou Water’s profits help to fund are all set up and managed by established NGO partners such as Oxfam; World Vision; Australian Red Cross and the like. These organisations have a proven track record in this area and Thankyou Water selects and audits them in the field on a project-by-project basis. In this way ‘TW’ can provide oversight for the allocation of their funds where they have the most direct impact, utilising the resources and expertise of those universally respected NGOs which have a long history of success in the field.

Thankyou Water have now extended that range to museli-based foodstuffs and a body-care range, and have specifically linked the two new product categories directly to emergency and long term food aid and hygiene education just as they did by linking bottled water sales to safe water projects. Already their efforts have changed the lives of 50,000 souls, but they are aiming for millions. I believe they’ll achieve that goal and by their example they will open the eyes of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs to what is now truly possible in our global village.

What makes Thankyou Water’s approach so unique is that they have developed an on-line method by which retail buyers of their water, food and body-care products will be able to track the positive impact their individual purchase is having via a specially created application called ‘Track Your Impact’. This is achieved  via the unique product code allocated to each item which can be tracked right through to the specific project in a specific location in the world, with GPS coordinates and photographs provided – all within fingertip touch on their smart phone app. Now that’s what I call marrying ‘high touch’ relationships with ‘high tech’ innovation.

The old model of supporting a far-flung community through charitable donations every month via the donor’s personal attachment to an individual child’s life story has just been upgraded to tracking on-line a single retail purchase to a specific impact on the ground in a specific corner of the developing world. Being a World Vision sponsor myself, I freely acknowledge that there is plenty of room for both forms of charitable and social entrepreneurial assistance in our society, but my profound belief is that Thankyou Water’s approach is heralding a new form of ‘idealisation’ that could well be the way of the future. What has brought this about is the vision of a handful of concerned and savvy Gen Y positive activists who intrinsically understand the value and the reach of Social Media combined with the technological ‘smarts’ of  today, and the courage and persistence to believe in their cause regardless of the insurmountable odds weighed against them in the start-up years.

I firmly believe that this masterful utilisation of Social Media combined with cutting edge web design and social media architecture has encapsulated the essence of today’s Gen Y approach to ‘changing the world’.

As a result of their ingenious Social Media campaign executed with military timing and a huge dose of irreverent and fun-filled ‘chutzpah,’ their world-changing bottled water and other staple items are now available for sale Australia-wide through 7-Eleven; Coles and Woolworths. It doesn’t get much bigger than that folks, and it’s all been achieved within five short years from the seed of an idea carried along on a wing and a prayer. Thankyou Water isn’t just an inspired vision any more, or even a sustainable social enterprise. It is developing into a full-blown movement with a just cause… and its followers are growing by the hour.

Here is their website -  www.thankyou.co . I urge you to check it out and spend more than just a few minutes trawling through their well crafted material and on-line creative genius. Once you have engaged with their site, I swear you will be hooked, and in the words of internet wunderkind Seth Godin, you’ll become another member of their ‘tribe.’

Needless to say, all of their YouTube Videos, of which there are many, are personable, informative and entertaining with high quality production values.

Here is just a brief taste of one of them. Do yourself a favour and click on it now… to follow their journey thus far.

This is the future today. As business owners and senior corporate executives, I want to ask you if Thankyou Water’s example has impacted on you as it did me? They once dreamed the impossible dream, but their dream is now a reality.

So what about your dreams?  What difference can you make in the world with all of the resources you have at your disposal?

They had none to begin with and still have very little to speak of today. But they are punching thousands of kilos above their weight.  I challenge you to do the same.  And if you feel you can’t, at least get on board and spread the word. I want my children and future grandchildren to inherit a world that I am proud to be associated with, and this is the type of example I want my children to be inspired by. What about you?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, and your feedback on how you can help me spread the word. Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further the amazing power of bringing this concept of “idealisation” to our workplaces, inspired by heart-centred leadership.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian.

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

To complete that famous question… ‘If a Tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it actually make a sound?’ Although this is a philosophical question regarding the nature of reality and whether it actually exists without the existence of the observer to witness and judge the event, I would like to hijack that question and move it to another context that I believe concerns us all…

For example… What if you had inside knowledge of a looming takeover which would quadruple the shares of a target company, and you had the opportunity and the funds to purchase a major shareholding in that company two days before the takeover bid was about to be announced, would you do it? What if you could do it with no chance of your insider trading ever being discovered?

Or… If, while parking late at night, you slightly scrape the side of a Lamborghini; and the damage is significant enough to require repair but just below the $500 excess which means the owner would have to pay for the damage personally, would you leave a note with your contact details? What if you were positive that no one else witnessed the event?

Or… What if your bank account suddenly received a deposit of $500,000 through a banking error and it didn’t get reversed out of your account after a week, would you draw out the funds and close the account? What if you were a highly skilled IT professional who was 100% certain that there was zero chance of the error ever being discovered as having been deposited in your favour, either now or in the future?

Or… What if you were to discover immediately after exiting a restaurant that you had just received $20 more in change than you were due and you knew the error would go unnoticed, would you walk back inside and correct the error? What if you also knew that the friendly waiter who served you all night and who made the error would not be held accountable for the discrepancy?

And finally… What if you had access to performance enhancing substances that would give you an unfair advantage over your competition and lead to you winning public accolades for all of your years of toil, followed by financial rewards that would set you up for life, would you go ahead and take the chance? What if you were 100% certain that your use of them would go undetected by both current and future testing regimes?

Whether the temptation is large or small, I feel the question remains the same…. what would you do?

Unfortunately this is the revelation we seem to be faced with every day in our media, particularly in the realm of elite sport, whether it be athletics, or cycling, or even our beloved football code here in Australia. It is amazing how quickly once revered sports people and respected sports administrators are rushing to retirement and resignation; declarations of shame and sorrow; belated feelings of guilt and conscience and new-found honesty, the moment that someone has finally uncovered their previous acts of folly. And it isn’t confined to our sports brethren either, if the latest discoveries of political rorting of expenses; developers doing secret deals with elected officials; dodgy business practices being revealed; governments eavesdropping on our electronic communications; church hierarchy cover-ups; law-breaking journalists and the cult of leadership with a ‘win at all costs’ brand of politics are to be considered.

‘Where does it all end?’ I feel compelled to ask, especially given I am not describing the social and political environment existing within failed societies where the rule of law has broken down. I am talking about the UK and Europe; North America and good old ‘true blue – dinky di’ Australia.

Has our headlong pursuit of winning at all costs and the accompanying fame and celebrity and financial riches that go with it become the new religion… the altar at which we now worship? Are the new heroes we admire today only those people who stand on the winner’s dais, or make the most money or accumulate the most prizes… as if winning was the single most important factor in the definition of success? If so, I propose that we start re-examining our understanding of the meaning of success before it redefines us and our society.

My late father once said to me as a young boy… “Whatever you do in life Brian, do your best and enjoy doing it. If you want to be a street sweeper… be the best damn street sweeper you can be and find enjoyment in doing it every day so that each night you can come home to a family whom you love and cherish, happy in the knowledge that they are a witness to what you say, what you do, and who you are. Let the contribution you make at whatever level in life, be one you can look back on with pride and a clear conscience that leads to self respect.”

I openly admit there have been times in my past when I have been tempted to take short cuts on the way to achievements and as I look back on those moments I realise that it didn’t matter whether they were major or minor opportunities to gain an unfair advantage while going unnoticed in the process, ultimately it was all the same. Every opportunity that was presented to me was another a chance to grow in character or to chip away at my sense of self worth little by little, until I would no longer be the person I could believe in. I wish I could say that I always chose the right path, but if I am to be honest with myself, with some of the smaller indiscretions, that was not the case every single time. In hindsight I might have made different choices knowing what I know today, but luckily those minor indiscretions have been very few, so for that I am thankful… although interestingly, I still remember them to this day.

Perhaps the only battle worth winning in life is the battle between character versus compromise when one’s personal integrity is at stake. Whether we believe in the law of Karma, or the judgment of our Creator; or just good old fashioned conscience with a capital ‘C,’ maybe these are the disciplines worth teaching in our schools if they are no longer being passed on in our homes and our sporting clubs or our local communities. Maybe the teaching of knowledge and skill and the emphasis being placed on personal achievement needs a healthy dose of ethics, and integrity and the pursuit of inner wisdom, to balance the ledger.

This is a touchy subject I know, and one which I hope you will turn your mind to as you reflect on the times in your life when you could have chosen a more self affirming course of action, especially if it was one of those times when whatever course you chose would go unnoticed by others. And hopefully too, it will cause you to think of the example you set for those you hold dear in your life from this point on. It’s a thought I ponder on when I hear yet another example of celebrated heroes who have fallen short, and it reminds me that if I don’t like the world I see and what it is becoming, then the change has to start with me, not them. Do you agree with me?

If there was one piece of advice I could share the next time any of us is faced with the temptation of gaining an unfair and undisclosed advantage in our lives, it would be this… “Would the action I am about to take today stand up to scrutiny in the front page of the national daily newspaper tomorrow?” If not, then maybe it is incumbent upon me to think long and hard before choosing to proceed.

Obviously if some of our previously admired sporting, political, religious and business leaders had lived according to this personal rule, we would not be confronted daily with these revelations about those whom we once held in high esteem.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, especially given that moral dilemmas such as these aren’t always just viewed in black or white.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further the amazing power of promoting values-driven leadership within your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

This was the question that Mastin Kipp, blogger to over 600,000 people daily on his site www.TheDailyLove.com asked of himself and all of his followers recently. It is of particular significance to me this week because a very dear friend and colleague of mine is going through one of those moments as I write. I thought I would pose this question to my friend and to every one of you and in so doing, remind you of the quote attributed to famed author, J.K. Rowling, whom we all know had quite a long relationship with life’s dark clouds before the silver linings finally shone through. As J.K.  said… “Rock Bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” Who hasn’t had a time in their life when every seed that was sown seemed to fall on arid ground? I know I have…

He goes on to say that he believes that having a logical point of view can be extremely limiting and if we truly understood this, we wouldn’t be quite so quick to apply meaning to the events of our lives. i.e. Just because we feel good or bad doesn’t mean what’s happening is good or bad.

His explanation of the conflict that ‘good vs bad’ can produce in us is thought provoking. Mastin explains it this way… “When I was doing drugs and drinking alcohol, in the moment I felt good, but nevertheless I was unaware of the long term effects of my actions, and when I’m working out in the gym it may hurt like hell, but there is a massive long term reward for me.” He goes on to share his thoughts on the counter-intuitive nature of things and that what’s bad might actually be good and what’s good might actually be bad, and that we need opposites to learn, to grow and to evolve, and maybe the worst things in our lives, seen from a new perspective, might actually be our greatest gift.

The late Viktor Frankl, MD, PhD, is a celebrated neurologist, psychiatrist and author of many books on existentialism  including his world renowned, best selling book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning.’ In this seminal book Frankl, a holocaust survivor, chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate which led him to discover the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus, a reason to continue living.

One of the most poignant and yet inspirational movies I can remember, also touches on this subject of making meaning out of the worst imaginable circumstances. It is an Italian film subtitled ‘Life is Beautiful’ directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. It is based on his father’s experience as a concentration camp survivor. It covers the experience of a Jewish Italian book shop owner who must employ his fertile imagination to shield his young son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp during one of mankind’s darkest periods in history. The 1997 film was a critical and popular success, winning Benigni the Oscar for Best Actor as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Foreign Language Film. I highly recommend it to you and guarantee that even though it is a subtitled film, the emotional impact of its message will not escape you.

Given that it is most probably hard wired into all of us to make meaning of every event in our life, what are the choices we make as a result? Although we hear the comment at least once a week, if not daily in business… ‘that was a good result…that was a bad result,’ the reality is there is no such thing as a good or bad result, just a result. We put the meaning of good and bad upon it. A better way of describing a ‘bad’ result might be to say… ‘That result is not bringing me closer to my goal, so what am I learning and what do I need to do instead… adjust my actions or reassess my goal?’ And a better way of describing a ‘good’ result might be to say… ‘That result is leading me closer to my goal, so what can I learn from that and what can I do more of as a result?’

But back to the topic of dark clouds and silver linings. I say to myself; my very dear friend; and to all of you reading this blog who may have or will experience utter despair or personal doubt some time in your life… Life is Precious and so are You, and the meaning you discover about this time in your life may be the most profound lesson you ever learn about yourself and the difference you were destined to make.

So look beyond those clouds and see the infinite possibility that exists within your Universe, and celebrate life with all of the mysteries it bestows upon you. As the co-creator of your life, keep the faith and forge ahead in whatever direction your heart is pointing to right now… and trust that the meaning will find you.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to know more about how together, we can help you find the deeper meaning in your life.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less.  Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick?  Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.