Author: M Faulkner

Rambling musings from recent travel (it’s a long one…)

I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog lately. Part of that is due to work and travel. Part of it is due to not really sure if I have something meaningful to put out there in the universe. (Unlike super successful bloggers, I am not good at the whole “write on a schedule” thing. That’s probably why I haven’t been able to retire and live the life to which I’d like to become accustomed.)

I mentioned travel. I recently returned from a very fun, very exhausting, and very different kind of vacation (for me). I had a chance to do an East Coast Swing – fly out to Philly for a couple of days to piggyback on my husband’s work trip and see what the city is like, and then we took a train to NYC. I had never been to either city. I am not a person who typically does well in big cities. Too many people. Too little sky.

I had a blast.

I mean, not ALL the time. Good lord, it’s still travel – have you done that recently? Oof. However, the fact that this trip was to a new place that forced me to do new things meant a lot. It also got me thinking differently about stuff in general. Of course, none of these thoughts were sufficiently long enough for an entire blog post, so you get random thoughts from the road.

Musing #1: The walkability of cities out east was really, really nice. It changes the way you interact with your environment. You notice things about the area you wouldn’t see in a car. We found lots of fun little shops and other things to see as we were walking around. We stumbled upon Christ Church in Philadelphia after grabbing a sandwich for lunch. We ended up in the cemetery where Ben Franklin is buried because we thought it looked cool. And we found Trinity Church and Alexander Hamilton’s grave while meandering about downtown Manhattan. None of these was on our list of things to see.
Lesson learned: Get out and walk around. You’ll see things you never expected to. Oh, and Times Square is THE WORST. 

Musing #2: Speaking of things not being on our list to see…we didn’t have a list of things to see. Typically when I go on vacation, I learn about the area and all that there is to do and then when we get there, we see what happens. (Seriously, we hate scheduling things because then we feel like we HAVE to do something.) I didn’t really do that this time. We had show tickets for one Broadway show (more on that later) and that was it. The rest was up in the air. Every day, we picked a destination, and then wandered around until we got there and let the day take us where it would. It’s how we ended up at The Intrepid Museum (very cool). It’s also how we ended up getting tickets for a second show on a whim. Not having it all in my head up front was a little frustrating at times, but it also meant I wasn’t worried that we’d miss something I’d read about.
Lesson learned: Sometimes you just go with the flow and take what the world gives you.

Musing #3: One of the cool things about travel is getting to meet people you only know from online. We got to have dinner with the incomparable Vadim Liberman. We had such a good time. We made him eat too much food, and forced him to consume sorbet against his will. (He made me say that so you wouldn’t think he’s fat.) Seriously, though, we had fun and it was great to finally connect in person. It was like we’d known each other for years.
Lesson learned: Online relationships CAN be meaningful and solid. And it’s even better when you can reinforce in real life.

Musing #4: The subway in NYC was not as awful as I was worried it would be. Which is silly, because we rode The Tube in London with no problems. As you can see, I had NO frame of reference for NYC (except maybe Law & Order, which probably isn’t super accurate). We took the subway from Times Square to downtown, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza and ice cream, and then took the subway back. Good times!
Lesson learned: We often make things out to be much worse in our minds than they actually are.

Musing #5: One of the things I have always wanted to do was see a Broadway show with its original cast. Hamilton was one I wanted to do, and that didn’t happen for various reasons (cost being a big one). So when Dear Evan Hansen came out and I saw some clips of how amazing Ben Platt was in the lead role…that was the show I picked. So we went. And…wow. I’ve seen live musicals and plays before. I have never seen someone commit like that. Damn. The show itself is good and all…but the actors are what elevate it to astounding. I’m curious to see how it fares when the original cast moves on. We also got tickets to see Hamilton (finally!). Totally lucked into not having to pay a million dollars, so it can be done! Also fabulous. As a show, Hamilton is far more brilliant than Dear Evan Hansen – staging, writing, choreography, etc. But I think the performances of Dear Evan Hansen stuck with me a little bit more. Either way – both shows were stupendous to see. As I sat there, watching the fantastic talent onstage, I realized I was watching people do what they were put on this Earth to do. It’s transformative.
Lesson learned: Go watch people do what they were meant, and built, to do. And see a show on Broadway at least once. It does make a difference.

Musing #6: The 9/11 Memorial is heart-breaking and powerful. I was surprised by the impact it has, all these years later. The Memorial team places roses in the names of victims on their birthday. The sight of those flowers is beautiful and sad. Please, if you ever go – don’t take smiley family pictures like it’s Disney. It’s basically a burial site.
Lesson learned: None really. Just incredibly moving.

We took almost 1,000 pictures. We walked what must be about 100,000+ steps in NYC (roughly 20,000/day). And I’ve written about 1,000 words about it because we saw so much and it made me think. A wise person once said, “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” As I get more opportunities to travel to new places, I agree with that 100%. I am grateful to have these opportunities and the wherewithal to take advantage of them. I get that not everyone can. I’m just asking you to try. So if you’ve been putting off that trip, don’t. Go book it now. Even if it’s just a quick drive over to the next town. Explore the world as much as you are able to do, especially the nooks and crannies of your hometown.

 

 

You never know what you’ll find.

Why I cringe when people say “hire for fit”

Companies are constantly looking for differentiators. In the first tech bubble, it was all about stock options and perks like kegs in the breakroom. In the second tech bubble, it’s been all about….stock options and kegs in the breakroom. Huh. I thought we’d come further than that. Moving on…

What you hear about more and more now, though, is “culture.” Culture is the great differentiator. It will make or break your company! It will make you productive! It will cure cancer! (Okay, I made that last one up.)

Listen, I’m a big fan of being intentional about the culture you’re allowing to develop in your workplace. It DOES impact the way people work, their ability to be successful, and how your customers view you. Whether or not you personally like Southwest Airlines (and I love them, so there), you can’t argue with their success in a tough industry. And they attribute it to their “culture” – from how they operate, to how they hire, to how they make, spend, and save money.

It’s the “how they hire” piece that I think people screw up all the time. (And I’m not the only one who thinks that!)

Too many companies who are concerned about their culture focus on hiring as the way to “fix it.” They think that by hiring the “right people,” they’ll magically get the culture they’re looking for. They focus on pre-hire assessments like personality tests and quirky questions and conversations about “passion.” And the next time the employee survey results come back, employees still say they don’t like the culture and turnover proves it.

At this point…I’m over “hire for fit.” Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s important that an employee aligns with core elements of the organization whether it’s the work they do, the people they work with, the values experienced, or what the company represents. But I think we’re going at it wrong. And here’s why:

ILLUSION #1 : Hiring for fit = a cure for all our ills: Every organization I’ve ever worked at that struggles with a “challenging culture” focuses on hiring as the fix. Why? Because it’s the easiest process to change. You add a couple of assessments, change some interview questions, and voila! All done.  

REALITY:  Hiring’s not your problem: Culture consists of EVERYTHING within your workplace, not just the people. It’s your systems, your processes, your location, your parking habits, the industry, your policies, your leadership practices, the behaviors of managers, communication….get the point. If you’ve got issues with your culture, it’s going to take more than just hiring people who SEEM to be part of the culture you want. You have to be willing to dissect the WAY you work. If you’re not wiling to do that, all those “new culture” people you hired are going to leave as soon as they can.

ILLUSION #2: Culture is about attitude, so we’ll ask about that: After all, we want to make sure people share our “values” so let’s make sure the questions are all about how they feel and what they like and dislike. That way we’ll know that they’re the right person to match our culture.

REALITY: Culture is about activity, not attitude: When you read about how Southwest (and other strong “culture” organizations – like Disney) hire people, you’ll see that they focus on BEHAVIORS, not feelings. That’s because behaviors are measurable and you can see how they impact work. Disney records how candidates interact with others, how they treat the receptionist, their inherent curiosity when sitting in a room…all behaviors. Southwest asks candidates how they handled a tough customer situation, looking for examples of the actions taken and the results of those actions. If you want a “culture fit” hire, find people who embody the culture through action, not words.

ILLUSION #3: Our managers are skilled enough to decide if someone is a good fit: We gave them a set of questions and told them to follow the law, they should be fine. Besides, these people have been here FOREVER and totally know what a good hire would look like.

REALITY: At best, they’re guessing. At worst, they’re using “not a fit” as an excuse for discrimination: If you don’t require interview training and calibration before a person is allowed to interview candidates, you have little to no assurance they know what they’re doing. Even then, you’ve got unconscious bias that no amount of training can overcome. By allowing “not a fit” to become the reason a qualified, promising candidate doesn’t get hired, you’re making it okay for managers to make snap judgments. If you can say “not a fit because of x,y,z examples of behaviors,” you’ve got a better chance. Also…DO YOU EVEN REALLY KNOW WHAT YOUR CULTURE IS? Probably not. You think you know. But unless you’ve done a valid assessment, you’re just describing what YOU think the culture is. 

ILLUSION #4: Same is good: Companies believe that if everything acts the same, thinks the same, and looks the same, then the culture will be fabulous and the company will be 100% successful.

REALITY: Diversity is good: You need diversity of backgrounds, thought, experience, age, race, gender…all of it. It breeds innovation. It pushes the company forward. It helps reduce that unconscious bias that gets us into trouble. It’s not the friction that’s the problem – it’s how you function with friction that’s hurting you. Include and celebrate differences and learn to leverage that friction in a way that’s beneficial to the organization.

In a perfect world, I would want companies to share openly enough of who they are and how they operate so that potential candidates can make the educated choice about whether or not they might be a “fit.” There are also tools out there that can help identify alignment with company values/behaviors in such a way that both allows the candidate to decide if they want to proceed AND helps the hiring manager identify questions that will get at the heart of whether full alignment is good or if the team needs that friction.

So please….stop acting like all  you really need to do is “hire for fit.” There are bigger issues at stake. Tackle those and then MAYBE you can start hiring for fit.

Maybe.

Use Your Brain #SHRM17

[This post first appeared on the SHRM Blog on June 20, 2017]

I’ve had the opportunity to go to a lot of different conferences, and I see a lot of keynote speakers who are considered experts in their fields. They are successful because enough people think enough of what they’re saying makes sense and support it. They’re also successful because they are engaging speakers who connect with their audience and make everything sound brilliant.

The thing is…you’re not required to agree 100% with what these speakers are saying. Some of them cite research. Some of them share what they’ve done that worked. Some of them just share what they think SHOULD work. Are all valid ways to share an idea.  All can either be right or wrong.

Whether it’s Laszlo Bock’s suggestion that hiring managers not have the final say of a hire, or Patrick Lencioni’s suggestion that if you REALLY want to know if a person is a good hire you should take them shopping, it’s up to you as to whether or not that suggestion makes a lick of sense.

I go into every session with the attitude that I am going to learn something, because nothing bothers me more than a conference attendee who claims they didn’t learn anything. I may not agree with the speaker, but I bet I learned something about WHY I didn’t agree with them. That speaker’s point of view triggered an internal reflection – “Does that make sense? No, that doesn’t make sense. Why doesn’t it make sense?” By questioning another’s point of view, I’m forced to critically consider my point of view.

Notice the words I’m using – “reflection,” “critically consider.” I’m doing this on purpose because there’s a difference between thoughtful disagreement and a kneejerk reaction against something new.

So as you finish up your conference sessions, or plan future conference attendance, I ask that you use your brain. Listen to what the speakers are saying – not necessarily how they are saying. Then decide whether or not you agree with it. Only then will you be ready to apply what you were exposed to at #SHRM17.