Can You Explain It to a Blonde?

At the risk of offending a lot of people, let me first say that I’m a blonde and, on top of that, a blonde from Texas. While I don’t wear the traditional blonde "helmet" often associated with Texas Women, I will confess to learning and applying the Principles of Blonde Engineering in my consulting practice. So...what’s it good for?

Blonde Engineering is particularly useful in implementing change and/or focusing performance in any organization. It also works in sales.

It is built from two fundamental assumptions:

        .....or perhaps you don’t understand it.

An example of putting this thinking into action is Southwest Airlines’ planes in the air make money. All service, training and development stems from planes in the air make money. Every employee learns what it takes to get a plane quickly in the air. No meals, no frills. Flight attendants make fun of the bump and hustle to quickly get on the plane and off the ground. This is how Southwest makes $$$--through people. Taking less time to turnaround planes, they need fewer planes. Blondes can do that math. Southwest takes moving passengers seriously--it doesn’t take itself too seriously. An example is the CEO arm wrestling for the tagline, just plane smart. Hence, the first Principle of Blonde Engineering.

Not your hair, your attitude! Have you ever seen an organization that people like doing business with that operates with white knuckles? People buy from people they like. It’s hard to like white knuckles and an attitude! Don’t tell anyone, but people like to work! Granted they don’t like busy work or feeling like they’re in charge of corporate stupid pet tricks, but they do like to feel like it makes a difference whether they come to work or not. Most people don’t want to "run things"--they want to contribute, feel good about themselves and what they do.

Now, while this may not be a challenge to some of you non-blondes, look at the motivation, energy and joy of breaking the barrier. Instead of berating employees for failure, let them improve and enjoy doing it. Have you ever done anything hard and performed well the first time? Can a team perform flawlessly the first time? Not in our experience.

A highly regarded local restaurant chain, LaMadeleine, gives away free food when it first opens a new location. Why??? I bet some of you non-blondes have already guessed--there is no way to work out the kinks without some initial failures. Instead of white-knuckled service, management allows some time to get it right, but doesn’t expect the customer to pay for it! Everybody wins. Some large professional firms might learn a lesson from this when they send rookies to a customer.

Blonde Engineering Principle 3.

Get Your Employees’ Interests Channeled in Ways that Benefit the Organization.

There is some danger in what individuals could infer from the next blonde story. At the outset, gimmicks and manipulation are discovered by the slowest employees. Don’t lie or soft sell what needs to be done. Discover what motivates employees and channel personal desires toward organizational needs.

A blonde with a coach class ticket gets on a plane and sits in first class. The flight attendant asks her to move to coach. The blonde replies, "I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, and I’m going to Denver." Amazed at the gall, the flight attendant brings the head flight attendant who gets the same response. An impatient passenger is waiting for her first class seat. In desperation, the pilot comes out and talks with the blonde. Shortly he whispers something in her ear. The blonde jumps up and hustles back to coach class. The attendants are amazed and ask what he said, "I told her first class wasn’t going to Denver."

While this exact approach is not only poor, it will ultimately undermine what builds employee performance--trust and confidence in management. It does illustrate using employee desires to build commitment to performance. The key is listening and communicating real choices to employees that allow them to choose to be successful.

Planes in the air make money.

Communicate the what, let employees figure out the how. If your strategy is fast turnaround and getting it right--a baggage handler knows what to do. There are three powerful phrases successful managers use:

Expect employees to succeed. Don’t spoon feed performance. Of course, you can’t expect a totally inexperienced person to perform in a manner of an experienced person, but you can provide the means for them to grow and learn. The key is realistic expectations and being able to communicate what outcome you need. People have an amazing ability to figure things out if you really understand what you want and communicate it.

Blonde Engineering Principle 5.

Even a blonde knows that an employee without steel girders, construction tools, engineering knowledge and help will fail to build the Golden Gate Bridge. How often do we ask for similar feats? The key is matching the person with the outcome needed, equipping with resources and agreeing on what constitutes success. Why outcomes? You pay for results, not activity. Measuring success on outcome allows employees to be creative, stimulates thought and builds judgment. Let employees find a way to get results. If baggage handlers know their job is to get bags on and off-loaded quickly and to the right place--there’s no confusion or lengthy procedures. Let your people experience the joy of achieving and finding a way!

Change happens: with employees and customers. Ford discovered that improving people management practices improves productivity 56% the first year, then 20% annually. Management is like cooking--fail to attend a pot that’s boiling over--you have a mess. Forget what else is cooking, you have no meal.

Change events aren’t on to-do lists. They’re part of doing business daily. The outcomes you need won’t change unless your mission or strategy change. 

Make sure your people can respond to changed events because they know what results to achieve.

Do you have a blonde joke or comment that illustrates these points? Contact Janice at 281 261-2320 or Email her at janicescanlan@earthlink.net. Janice helps organizations develop change responsive leadership to improve profits through people. She is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC).

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