New Year, New Paradigms, New Outcomes

Like it or not, there’s no astronomical reason to celebrate New Year on January 1.  New Year’s Day was first celebrated in ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq) in 2000 BC. In 153 BC, the Romans dedicated January 1 to Janus, the pagan god of gates, doors, and beginnings. In honor of Janus, they named the first month of the year January. Janus had two faces, one looking forward and another looking backward.

Auld langsyne

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar.  After Caesar was murdered, the Roman Senate voted to deify him on January 1, 42 BC.  Europeans, mostly in Flanders and Netherlands, celebrated New Year with pagan festivities. In 1752, England adopted the Gregorian calendar, where the first day is observed as the Feast of the Circumcision.

In the modern world, different cultures celebrate the New Year in peculiar and festive ways.  In the West and in countries colonized by the West, Auld Lang Syne is sung on New Year’s Eve. The song written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788 is now used to bid farewell to the old year. When I was a young Boy Scout, we would sing Auld Lang Syne at the close of jamborees.  It’s also sung in funerals and graduations.  Literally, auld langsynemeans “old long since” – also “days gone by” or “old times.”

Significance

To many people, New Year has many meanings.  It’s the end of the winter solstice, the start of the lengthening of days.  To pagans, it’s the return of the Sun.  To Christians, it’s part of celebrating the birth of the Son of God.  In ancient Babylon, it meant struggle between Chaos and Order, with Chaos usually winning.

The common theme, however, is that New Year means a fresh start.  It’s the time for looking back, setting things straight, mending quarrels, returning borrowed things, throwing away the old and trying the new.  In old Italy, people literally threw old things outside their windows, symbolically getting rid of the past as they look forward to a better future.

Despite several New Years and resolutions in their lives, many people don’t really change.  Professional Counselor Craig Lounsbrough says, “We desire an exciting future, but the demand for the familiar and comfortable tempers our steps to the point that often our steps are little more than stepping in place.”

Business not usual

In the past, business was predictable – it was business as usual.  Changes were predictable, small increments and mostly linear.  In 1969, Peter Drucker introduced concepts that sounded Greek to businessmen.  Drucker forewarned of the end of continuity, the advent of new economic policies, the shift from internationalization to globalization, pluralism and the society of organizations, and the rise of the knowledge worker.  In today’s new economy, all that Drucker predicted have come to pass.

What worked in the old economy might not work in the new economy.  It’s no longer business as usual. Just like what the Italians did, you’ve got to start throwing old practices out of your window if you want to succeed in life, business and career.

Here are a few crazy suggestions to start your New Year in the right direction:

Don’t treat employees as human resources, assets or capital. Throw away the mercenary or rent-seeking notion that employees are resources or capital that can be used, allocated and discarded at will.  Unlike money, machines, materials, or methods, employees are people with feelings, aspirations, and unique talents.  Respect, develop, trust them, and they’ll reciprocate.

Replace fear with fun.  To get what you want from people – employees, customers, vendors, regulators, consultants, etc. – motivate them.  You can’t effectively extract productivity or profit by threatening to fire them, or increase selling prices, or boycott their supply.  Treat them as indispensable business partners – with heart, soul, compassion, and humor.

Build trust with a different MBWA.  Three or four decades ago, MBWA (management by walking around) became a popular management tool. Instead of staying in their ivory towers, managers had to walk around – be at the shop floor, visit to the customers and vendors, check out employees at the backroom, and “smell the flowers.”

Try a new MBWA – management by walking away.

Make yourself scarce, trust your people more, including the rank and file, train them to do your job, delegate what you have to do, challenge people to rise to the occasion, but give them utmost support.

Don’t give them flat tires and expect them to win a race.  After all, there’s no forever.  One day, you’ll have to go – read my lips, D-I-E – so start early training and delegating authority to the lowest level possible.

Dare to care. I heard this slogan, “Dare to care” from the late Raul Hernandez, President of San Miguel Packaging Products.  He was so tough-minded as to dispassionately close non-performing businesses.

At the same time, he was extremely people-oriented.  He understood that employees are people trying each day to balance family concerns, personal dreams, and work responsibilities.  Amid his busy schedule, he had the guts to watch, listen, talk to, and help employees the best way he could.

Kick the status quo in the butt.  Most leaders, especially in government, see their job as keeping the status quo.  I had a gutsy boss who thought otherwise, and he rubbed off on me.  In 1994, Caltex Philippines (now Chevron) Chairman, President and CEO Bill Tiffany hired me to kick some butts.  He wasn’t referring to people, but to ideas, processes and old ways of doing things.

I was lucky enough not to believe what other managers were telling me – that Bill’s ideas were impossible.  So I went on to negotiate the first performance-based CBA in the entire Philippines. It was not the usual across-the-board increases with the rank and file unions. We also implemented a targeted attrition (not voluntary separation) program.

With the help of consultants (NoliPayosand OrlyZorilla) I corrected an aberration in our salary structure and pay system.  We used to be the highest payer but had the lowest market share among the “three sisters” in the oil industry. I also revised the benefits system, which earned me the Chairman’s Award from Dallas, Texas.

We also fired a few union presidents and officers, not because they were union officers, but because of just and authorized causes.  It was like living on the edge for me.  Someone said, “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”

Don’t make your customers No.1.  The customers are not always right – ask your frontline employees.  In Southwest Airlines, employees come first, customers second.  Top honcho Herb Kelleher makes this known to his employees and customers alike.  When employees know that their boss is behind them, they’ll be more loyal, bold and creative in serving their customers.

Stop ensuring employee satisfaction.  Employee satisfaction is the lowest level of employee engagement.

Employee commitment and advocacy are higher levels.  Many companies waste money to monitor employee satisfaction.

Sadly, satisfied employees don’t guarantee satisfied customers.  Instill in employees commitment and advocacy to delight and amaze customers, and ensure Aha!moments orengender emotional orgasmsamong customers.

New Year needs new perspectives. Drucker said, “In guerilla country a hand-car, light and expendable, rides ahead of the big and lumbering freight train to detonate whatever explosives might have been placed on the tracks.”

(Ernie is the 2013 Executive Director and 1999 President of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP); Chair of the AMCHAM Human Capital Committee; and Co-Chair of ECOP’s TWG on Labor and Social Policy Issues. He also chairs the Accreditation Council for the PMAP Society of Fellows in People Management. He is President and CEO of EC Business Solutions and Career Center. Contact him at [email protected])