Nine Lives

Barack, Juice the Jam

A Top Performer in politics must learn to Juice the Jam.  In the book Top Performer, a language of energy is introduced. One element of this language is Juice the Jam.  A Jam is when something significant happens and catches you by surprise.  A tearful response to a question, falsely identifying a terrorist group or perhaps even the comments of your pastor.  These are Jams.

Jams force a politician to leave the well rehearsed message and enter into an unscripted territory. The defining moments of a campaign are the Jams.

The question isn't whether there will be Jams.  There will be.  The question is how to get the energy of a Jam working for you rather than against you.  You have to find the juice in the jam at a time when your instincts want the jam to go away.  It does no good to resist a jam, it has already happened, yet that is the most common response.  And resisting a jam simply makes things worse.

Barak Obama was presented with an enormous jam when video clips of his pastor preaching became front page news because of some rather radical statements.  Barak had a choice of resisting the jam or juicing it.  He took a middle ground.

The question raised was how he could belong to a church where the pastor made such incendiary remarks. A possible response was what I call "the boiled frog" response.  Something like this, "I guess over the years  I simply turned off when extreme comments were made, simply attributing them to the part of the man that had a different experience than mine.  Seeing those comments, some of which I heard and some of which I did not, strung together as video clips was shocking to me.  While I love my pastor for the good he has done I must disavow everything presented in those tapes.  I love my country and I do not believe any of the radical remarks made.  I am sorry.  You see, even presidential candidates can make mistakes."  That is one way to juice a jam.  Take it as an opportunity to convey your humanity while reinforcing your views.

Another way to juice a political jam is to use it as a teaching opportunity.  Barack did that in his speech responding to the tapes of Rev. Wright.  He eloquently and fearlessly spoke about race.  Unfortunately much of what he said was lost because in the same talk he resisted, tried to explain away, the jam.

The jams in a campaign will tell you a great deal about the candidate.  The successful candidate in a close race will be the one that best Juices the Jams.

Experience Zones

A Top Performer is a master of the experience zone. I have defined experience zone to be that place where a customer or potential customer has an opportunity to connect with someone working for the organization.  In fact this could happen on the street, in a bar, on the golf course or in an airlines club room. It could also happen at the reception desk, on the floor, on the phone, at the counter, and at a customer sight.  The second list has more opportunities for a connection and I call those the primary experience zones. A Top Performer knows how to turn an opportunity to connect into engagement.  A Top Performer creates a positive experience in the experience zone.

All experience zones are important but some zones can make or break the business.  Lets take a look at the health club business for example.  Everyone who enters a health club passes the front desk.  In most clubs you encounter a check in routine.  What happens in the exchange at the front desk will be a determinate of the overall experience.  A customer will draw conclusions about the club based on the quality of this experience over time. The staff at the front desk are in a position to build the brand or tear it down.

Another experience zone in the club is the workout room.  Most clubs educate a member in using the equipment and leave them on their own.  You don't see many staff members in the workout room unless they in fact are working out themselves.  What you do encounter are the personal trainers and other club members.  What is interesting about these two groups is neither typically "works for" the club.  Personal trainers are usually independent contractors who derive their income from their clients although the club usually handles the transaction and keeps a portion of the revenue.  In fact personal training is a major source of revenue.  The club members represent the club in an indirect way.  The culture of the workout room is created, in part, by the members.  If they are nasty people it is a nasty club.

While personal trainers are identified by their clothing and are connected to the club in the eyes of the member, they rarely consider themselves a part of the organization.  They move around with their clients oblivious to those around them.  This is a major experience zone and the potential is wasted.  A little effort to help personal trainers feel a part of the club and builders of the brand would go a long way.  And it is not that difficult to help them see the connection between the quality of the brand and their income. Club members are also potential brand builders.  That is a story for another time.

I have a personal trainer in Minnesota who introduces me to his other clients and comes over to say hello when I am in the club working on my own.  Over the months I have worked out there, it has become clear that he is a Top Performer and the club is better because of him although he gets no recognition for what he does and he is the only personal trainer that doesn't move around like a robot.

One more example from another business.  I stayed at a hotel in Prague and it was a delight.  It was clear they had worked hard to develop a great experience in a formerly communist country.  On Sunday I went down to the gift shop to find a newspaper.  A Sunday New York times was on the rack and I bought it.  When I settled down for a good read I noticed it was a week old.  I took the paper back and asked why they had sold me a week old paper.  She said, "if you are dumb enough to buy it, I will sell it."  A half hour later, in the company of the hotel director, I returned to the gift shop.  He was clearly distraught and she clearly didn't understand why.  Afterwards he through up his hands and apologized, telling me the gift shop was not owned or operated by the hotel.  In this situation they had outsourced not only their gift shop, but a major experience zone as well.

Pay attention to your primary experience zones and populate them with Top Performers.

Top Performing Leaders

I am fascinated with leaders who understand the difference between gaining cooperation and gaining commitment.  In much of business life cooperation works.  As a leader you tell people what to do and they do it or suffer the consequences.  This is an oversimplification to be sure.  There are those who do this so smoothly that employees are willing to go along without resistance.  And there are those who issue orders without much thought about the human beings at the other end of the orders.

There are times when the excellence of an organization is tied to the actions and attitudes of those who directly connect with customers. These brand bearing, image forming carriers of the corporate flag define the organization with each encounter.  Add it all up and you have the intangible in performance.  It is here you benefit from commitment, not just cooperation.  The intangible is the natural energy released from someone working in a personally committed way. And the leader who understands this difference is the leader whose organization will realize the benefits of this intangible.

On Monday I watched one of these leaders in action for the second time.  He was at the annual meeting of regional hotel managers from one of the major brands.  And he participated all day long.  This is so rare that the first time I observed this a couple months ago I wondered if it was a fluke.  Not so.  He was there from beginning to end and everyone in the room knew he was there.  What does his presence have to do with leading for commitment?  He wasn't just talking the talk, he was walking the walk.  And in so doing he demonstrated the importance of the things being discussed and issued an invitation to those assembled to participate.  This invitation wasn't issued in a newsletter, email blast or corporate video; it was issued by his presence.

Now I know he is opening hotels in Japan and Europe and that he has a thousand things to do.  There will be events he can't attend.  The important thing is that when he is there, he is completely there.  And that is leadership for commitment.

Natural Energy

I don't know who said it first, that's the way it is with Carr and me.  It no longer matters.  One of us said the words "natural energy" when describing the energy released in an authentic human encounter.  So much of the world's discourse is forced or scripted that it immediately felt like an important idea. It has moved from an important idea to a north star for life.

I find myself hesitating whenever the energy is anything but natural.  As I look over the biggest mistakes in my life which is the same as saying, the biggest wastes of life energy pursuing something false or wrong for me, I realize the signs were there.  In every case I thought my way into a situation that violated what my heart was telling me.  The energy was not natural.

I am going to continue exploring this idea and I encourage you to try it on for size.