Sanders Says

Thanks for being an INCREDIBLE partner

Over the next few years, your relationships with suppliers and vendors will get pretty tough. 

(Actually, I've learned that they should actually be called partners, because they make our success possible.) This terrible economy will cause many companies to adopt a what-can-you-do-about-price attitude with anyone asking for money, including long time partners.  

If you are business to business, you are already hearing this from some of your best customers.  When scarcity thinking sets in, we go from partner to survivor.  This is demoralizing for everyone and strains the best of relations.  Years from now, you'll wish you had more 'bad-times' credit with them.  Back in 2002 and 2003 I saw this first hand.  To this day, many relationships are still weak from that strain. 

Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity (excuse) for you to better you relations with partners.  Before you go home today, identify on two parters who makes you life/business better.  Maybe they provide a smooth and essential service that you have come to rely on.  Maybe they look out after your best interests, especially when they have an inside track.  

Now call each partner, talk to you lead contact, and tell them that they are one of the things you are most thankful for this year.  When you hang up, draft a short letter, sign it and mail it to him or her.  

What will this accomplish?  You'll make someone's day.  You'll help them understand that they are your long term partner and not some parasite supplier/provider during a recession.  Over time, you'll find this investment to be a reference point during a time of natural friction.  

Here's a eBook excerpt from Saving The World At Work: Download Costo Excerpt

Buy a copy for your favorite partner!

Travel on purpose, reduce anxiety

I had a feature in today's New York Times! 

(The Chatterer's Guide To Easing Anxiety) 

The point of the essay is that purpose solves suffering, so live on purpose. When you see suffering in others as they are attempting to complete a task -- ask them about their purpose.  

Purpose is a cure for spiritual cancer.  If you haven't already, pick up a copy of Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  It'll blow your mind.  

The Power Of One -- The Don Ostler story

Investor's Business Daily ran a story today, featuring Saving The World at Work! 

Harnessing The Power of One 

It's the story of Don Ostler at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.  The point of the story is the larger point of my book:  Anybody can change the world at work.  It's good for your company, It's good for the world, it's good for you.  

PS - Last month I met Bob Stiller, the founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.  When I mentioned Don to him, he lit up.  He said, "that guy has a passion for the planet! He's one of my heros."  

For the rest of the Ostler story, here's a free mini Ebook excerpt from Saving The World At Work (Download Ostler Excerpt ).  

Getting off the fear train: A call for leaders to distract their people with purpose

The stock market’s current turmoil feels like a nasty flu: Fevers, breaking fevers, moment of euphoria as health returns, followed by setbacks. When I visit the home page on Yahoo!, my eyes can’t avoid the color of the stock market numbers below the news box. Sometimes they are slightly red. No sweat. Many times, there’s a little fever (say 2% down). Sometimes the fever gets much worse (3 or 4%) down and skyrockets at the end of the day the body’s resistance wanes. Rarely a set of green numbers (sometimes as high as 5 or 10%) can give us new hope that this thing is turning around, and everything will be OK. Then the fever shows right back up the next day. I’m writing this post as the market winds down from an ugly day, with sellers coming out of the woodwork. I’m ignoring it to write this post, a purposeful distraction. This is our only hope as individuals: Work on something, worry less.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Great leaders keep their people focused on value creation during times of crisis. To paraphrase Napoleon, you gauge reality and give hope. It’s your job to engage your troops in work that inspires them, helps them feel like they are making a difference and conforms with the current economic climate. That means you’ll have to innovate like a non-profit when it comes to bootstrapping or self-funding some of your ideas. All that effort is good for your creative mind, and you won’t go broke innovating. If, on the other hand, you let the mood at work swing with the market, you’ll join many other companies in the downward spiral. It’s really your choice. Some companies are going to build/fix and imagine some incredible things over the next two years.

Swap team members, share knowledge, get better

Innovation is a function of chemistry, motivation and necessity. 

The best way to cultivate the right chemistry is through idea and knowledge sharing.  

I read today that brand super-power Procter and Gamble has teamed up with Google, to kindle innovation the old fashion way:  A corporate work study program.   

This is brilliant.  Take two companies in un-related fields, trade out a handful of team mates between them and encourage rule breaking.  The result?  Cross pollination of cultures, innovation habits and execution strategies.  In this case, there is no downside.  

I think this can work for any size business that wants to improve it's performance.  When you get your people back, they have a new view of the world and you have a batch of new friends at the other company.  

In my new book, Saving The World at Work, I talk about how Consorta sent some of their employees to The United Way.  

Here's a free sample from the book: Starting in 2002, Consorta, a group purchasing company that buys supplies on behalf of hospitals, lent its purchasing expertise to United Way—a good fit for Consorta because United Way has a presence in all of the cities where Consorta does business.

[former] Consorta CEO John Strong says that, by sharing its expertise with United Way, the company was able to help the organization save $7 million in the first year alone significantly more money than Consorta could have handed directly to the nonprofit.

Giving away intangibles such as knowledge or software creates a mutual victory for company and community. Ask yourself what knowledge or technology you could give a community organization. Also, what kind of helpful advice could you receive from that organization via the feedback loop?

Sunshine is the cure for spiritual cancer

Here's an excerpt from my new book, Saving The World At Work:

Many employees spend their entire work life under artificial lights. This situation can affect their moods as well as their performance.   A landmark 2003 study for the Environmental Protection Agency by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that natural light improves an employee's vision, function, and productivity, but most important, mood-it wards off depression and alleviates job stress.

In their book Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart talk about a new Herman Miller furniture factory that was redesigned with bigger windows and skylights, allowing sunshine to pour into the entire workspace. The employees' mood improved immediately, and so did productivity.

The factory managers noticed a side benefit as well: A number of workers who left for higher wages at a competitor's factory returned in a few weeks. Asked why, they told management they couldn't stand to work in the dark.

You can also make a difference with seating assignments. It's easy enough to move people around, especially in a cubicle environment, so that no employee has to work in 100 percent artificial light for more than a few months at a time.

No matter what your job title, you can effect change. At Aveda, an electrician came across a Web site featuring a new hybrid lighting system developed by Oak Ridge National Labs. Unlike solar power, which transforms sunshine into electricity, the hybrid system pulls sunlight into a rooftop dish and pipes it into the building, spraying it directly into a room while filtering out any harmful rays.  The electrician, who was working in a windowless room at the time, thought it was an excellent idea and showed it to his boss, mechanical engineer Jim Gausman. Gausman decided the system would mesh naturally with Aveda's alternative-energy program, so he pitched it to CEO Dominique Conseil, who immediately gave it the green light.

NOTE:  I just heard Bidwell Center founder Bill Strickland speak at the Conscious Capitalism conference.  With regards to natural light he said, "The cure for spiritual cancer is natural light, fresh flowers and enthusiasm.  People are a function of their natural surroundings.  Put them in a building that feels like a prison, and they'll behave like prisoners!"

If you've never seen Bill Strickland give his famous slideshow presentation, watch it now!  It will change your life and inspire you to help others reach their potential.  (Bill Strickland at the TED Talks with Herbie Hancock)

Practice getting fired

With the economy on the slide, layoffs and cutbacks loom over our days. 

If the corporate grim-reaper makes a visit to your cube this Winter, are you ready?  Will you act like you 'saw it coming' or make a desperate fool out of yourself?  It really comes down to the element of surprise. A few weeks ago I visited Gene and Julie Gates at KVIL where they host a morning show radio program. 

They told me a great story about how they knew they were going to be fired, so they rehearsed it!  (Gene and Julie practice getting fired).  What was the benefit of such work?  Dignity.  Since they'd already been through it, when the actual time came, they were calm about it.  

If you know someone (hint) that might be getting fired/laid off or downsized, suggest a rehearsal. Remember:  When the economy improves, many people are offered their job back.  

Unless they totally freaked out when they were cut! 

Ghostland Observatory: Folie a deaux

My good friend JB Hager showed me a YouTube video of Austin art dance-duo Ghostland Observatory. 

In short, they rock.  They killed at Austin City Limits, and their new record is like Air meets The Killers with a dollup of NIN.  They have one of the most exciting 2 person live shows in alt-club world.  

I just picked up their newest disc, Robotique Majestique.  Check out track 3 (No Place For Me) and track 4 (Freeheart Lover) for a taste of this act.   There is something very special about this singer, so don't miss one of the big indie-electro buzz bands of the year.   There are more than six great tracks on this disc, so buy it in full -- this is no one-hit-flashband.  

Look for synergies and you will find them

John Mackey's Conscious Capitalism conference/conclave was a magical event last week in Austin. 

For three days, about one hundred likeminded souls gathered to present, listen and interact around the theme of business as agent of common good.  There were so many great ideas, I'll likely be reporting on them for months.  

One of the key takeaways came from John Mackey's closing remarks at the event.  He explained that supporting local development, for example, can have high costs/risks or create incredible synergies.  If you are looking for high costs or downside, you'll find them, he said.  

However, if you are looking for synergies and mid to long term payoffs, you'll find them too.  So look for them, he explained.  Wow.  He's right.  This whole issue (measuring the biz ROI of conscious capitalism) wheels around the company's VALUES.  

What do I mean?  In my new book, I define values as "the criteria by which we allocate resources."  If you value contribution, you'll allocate resources to find synergy -- even if it is hidden below the surface of easy facts.  If you value covering-your-behind, you'll dispatch resources to estimate costs, budget, potential negative reactions, etc.  You won't likely do both.  

So look for synergies, yet be realistic about costs.  Look for low cost (think time, effort, advice) opps and spend some time imagining how helping others will help the company in the long term.   

Catch my last public tour gig in West Palm Beach FL!

On December 3, in West Palm Beach, I'll be giving at talk at the Get Down To Business Lunch, hosted by Easter Seals Florida. 

It's the last talk on the 2008 book tour, a great cause and a wonderful location. 

I love the Easter Seals mission to ensure that all people with disabilities or special needs and their families have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play in their communities.  

Please join me in celebrating the tour, the cause and life at this event.