Polly Pearson's Blog

Reality TV communication for Employee Engagement and Connection to Strategy

Today we issued the third "episode" of Reality TV-Meets Employee Communication -- Web 2.0 style.

[A screen shot, this of Frank Hauck, from one of the clips.]

Called "Leadership in Action," the intent is to better connect the people of the company with the culture, the strategy, the values, and the leadership of the company.  And by leadership, I mean "leadership at every level."  While most of the clips are of the C-suite type leaders, not all are.

The content is presented as Infotainment that can fit "inside a cup of Joe."  Meaning, the video clips can be consumed quickly and are short. All the content is housed on our internal "collaboration network" (aka social network), where employees can comment on the videos, ask questions and even rate the content with Amazon-type stars.  Every clip is indexed, tagged, and searchable.

[Pictured: Frank Hauck, EVP, and Joe Tucci, EMC CEO share a laugh while I interview them for this "Engaging," web 2.0, employee communication.]

In this edition, we included a casual, high energy exchange between CEO Joe Tucci and EVP Frank Hauck on the day we announced earnings. It was the end of the day, and they were casually leaning against the stage where our record results were just reviewed.  (You read that right. Record results. Recession year; Record results.) They talked about the vibe at the company, the position we were in for the year ahead, and what got them excited as we looked forward.  Best of all, I think, is what wasn't said in words. It is the body language, the laughter, and the clear comfort they had with each other.  In other words, the stuff people generally don't get to see when left to see just the business-as-boring type of corporate communication.

[Pictured: Famed blogger and EMC VP, "VirtualGeek" cracks a joke on stage in the reel made for our Board.]

Also in this edition was a 'fly on the wall' view of what happened at an 'exclusive' series of strategy meetings to frame the year 2010 execution plan. This video was actually created, on request of our Vice Chairman and head of global sales, for our Board of Directors.  The Vice Chair gave us the okay to share it with all 43,000 employees.  (What? You let your employees see content that was exclusively created for your Board of Directors?  Content from a company strategy meeting no less?  Yup.)  What did it contain, exactly?  A highlight reel of sorts from presentations and panels, and even cocktail parties  -- inclusive of friendly peer-to-peer joking. Only by including the Full Monte, could everyone be able to feel (and reinforce for those who were there) the energy and optimism that oozed from these sessions.

[Pictured: EMC Vice Chair/Head of Global Sales Bill Teuber discussing international go-to-market strategy with AsiaPac President, Steve Leonard.]

What else? Really cool clips of our "theater leads"  the people who own the revenue and profit plans for each major geography.  The Sales organization made changes this year to its market coverage methodology and it is important for everyone to know the what and whys of these changes, at least at the highest levels.  Each leader provided facts, figures, context and stories -- of the type you might get if you had a cup of coffee with them, and they knew you well. They were straight-talking business, yet of a personal and trusted nature.  Like-able candor was a take away for me.

Here is a screen shot of how the list of offerings looks, about 6 hours after being announced to the workforce:

You can see that one of the videos has over 400 views already -- and that the full "video collection" has almost 4,000 views.

Our model isn't perfect yet -- and the video clips never will be perfect.  But they are real, and that is our commitment to the people of EMC.  Nothing fake. Just real, the way you want want to get the information if you worked here.  That's the goal anyway.

Here's a link to a prior blog I wrote about our second edition, with more photos and color.

Here is a sample of one of the clips from our second edition, this of our newest President, Pat Gelsinger, discussing his first 45 days on the job. My peer, Chuck Hollis, called it out on one of his blogs as a way to introduce Pat, now the guy behind EMC products, to the tech readers who frequent Chuck's writings.

------------------ Talk Back ----------------------------

What do you think?

Thoughts to improve the model?

One idea came from an employee who viewed the videos. He pointed out that he was deaf, so he only "got" about half the content, and wondered if we could provide transcripts.  Humm. I never would have thought of that.  You?  (consider it done!)

http://www.pollypearson.com
@pollypearson

Employee Engagement and Recognition: Case Study

Every Employee Satisfaction and Motivation survey I see indicates people want more recognition. 

 

Execs and managers scratch their heads, wondering what else they could do.

Why don't the current, seemingly abundant methods meet the need?

 

My theory: we leave too much on the shoulders of the executives.  Sure, they should do their part -- but they make up, what? 1% 10% 20% of a company?  What if the model was turned around?  Set the expectation that the other 99% 90% or 80% should recognize often as well! Then you will have 100% of the company involved in the recognition process, and, eventually, people will truly know, see, and hear they are making a difference on a much more frequent basis.

I believe the big breakthrough for "people management" is in the Peer Model in this Knowledge Era of the 21st Century.  Create an environment where leadership happens at every level -- and you will have more of everything you want. 

Imagine:  An individual contributor serving customers better, inventing better ways to do things, telling his peers what an awesome job they're doing ... and multiply this magical CEO dream by the number of your workforce.

Why not?

Kudos for Oracle for doing more of this new model. On their internal social network, they have a ticker running constantly called "Kudos" where anyone is welcome to recognize anyone else.  Why hide the "thanks" in an email?  Share it for all to see! 

Following is an example on how a peer effort at EMC was a 360 degree win for everyone involved -- and took no Presidential decree, or even an ounce of money, to make happen.

*****The Case Study ****

A group of folks at the company had the idea to film the inventors/employees of an industry breakthrough, which resulted in one of the most successful products at our company. The breakthrough happened over twenty years ago, and the product platform which resulted from it is still contributing millions in revenue to the company. In fact, you can likely not go a day in your life without this product somewhere storing, moving, or managing the digital bits of on-line information that make up your life. YET, it was realized, no one at the company had yet to document the story on film -- or truly recognize to a notable extent the people behind the breakthrough. 

So with that, it was decided by people who had never done this before, to set up a round table with these inventors and record it with a Flip Camera to ensure this story got captured.

Flash forward a bit.  Another individual employee, Tom Bennett, having nothing to do with PR, HR, or Marketing of any sort in his official job, let it be known to someone familiar with this "inventor story" footage that he was a movie maker/producer/editor in his spare time, and would like to help the company if there was a need for such skills.

The following short, documentary-story-telling video was edited and produced by Tom.  A company engineer by day, he was able to converse with the featured engineers in their terms to understand the truly potent segments and pull out supporting clips and collateral to help tell the story.  He did this on his own time.

The result? Recognition for inventors Mark Lippitt, Bob Solomon, Dave DesRoches, and Steve Todd -- and the contribution their breakthrough had on EMC, and the industry. ALSO:  Culture-Building. People displaying their passions, and making use of passions whether they are related to their obvious day job or not.  Oh, and, in total, making the company a much warmer, nicer place.  All for Free.  Now consider if everyone at your company felt empowered to help make this type of magic happen.  Money doesn't drive recognition. It is the environment that says, "Go ahead! You're empowered! Spread the Good News."

This film got its worldwide debut in a distribution titled, "Leadership in Action," to all 42,000 company employees spread over 85 countries.   It was released on YouTube the same day and currently boasts a viewer review of 4 stars.  :) The film and the story currently lives in the "Culture Talk" community of the company's internal social network, where people can converse with the inventors and discuss memories they shared from that pivotal point of our industry.

A few months ago, Harvard Business Review posted this article, titled, "Four Simple Ways to Make Your Employees Happier."  It seems to ring true against the backdrop of this little case study as well.

----------- Talk Back ----------------

What is your view on recognition?  Is there merit to everyone putting a little bit in the game?

-- Polly Pearson
http://www.pollypearson.com
@pollypearson