August 27, 2003
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-- Is America headed for a Talent Blackout?
-- To Prove a Point
-- This can get really ugly! What is the state of leadership and competence in your business?
-- When "1" is not a valid option!
-- Get certified now! Register today for Oct 30 - Nov 1.
-- A powerful new business tool for evaluating core employee skills.
-- Burned out or looking for a new career? Thinking about leaving corporate America and starting your own business?
-- The Best Screening Tool for Hourly/Entry-Level Employees
-- The Manager's Pocket Guide to Emotional Intelligence
-- - and More Pocket Books.
-- 50 Activities for Developing Emotional Intelligence

Welcome to this week's issue of The Total View. Blaster, Sobig, blackouts, and the dog days of summer - what a month for business and sending out The Total View. We promised the results of our competency survey today but - we've decided to give everyone another two weeks to respond. Because of the computer viruses and blackout many of our subscribers did not receive one or both of the past two week's Total View. So we're extending the date to complete the survey. Please take a few minutes and complete the survey below and watch for the results in the September 10 issue.

The Total View is written and published each Wednesday by Ira S. Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions. (Yes, Ira writes every article, every week!)

Success Performance Solutions ©2003 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.

To learn more about Success Performance Solutions or read back issues of The Total View, visit our website at www.super- solutions.com.

Is America headed for a Talent Blackout?
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Just yesterday, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board released its report on NASA's responsibility in the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. NASA blamed the accident on foam that hit the shuttle's wing. The Board blamed NASA's culture made the catastrophe happen. WOW!

The cost of this accident to America was over one billion dollars and the loss of the seven crew members was unconscionable and an investigation concludes that "company culture" was at the root cause.

Before the accident, NASA mission managers fell into the habit of accepting as normal some flaws in the shuttle system. Now that never happens around your businesses I'm sure. The managers also were cited for ignoring or not recognizing that these problems could lead to tragedy. The Board noted that "ineffective leadership failed to fulfill the implicit contract to do whatever is possible to ensure the safety of the crew." Duh.

Management techniques also discouraged dissenting views and ultimately created "blind spots" about risks.

Ironically this occurred less than two weeks after the Northeast experienced the biggest blackout in North American history. The cost to American businesses has been estimated to be somewhere around $6 billion. And although the exact cause of the blackout has yet to be established, the root cause will ultimately point to human error - the failure of leaders and executives to build and maintain an electricity grid that is reliable. Government officials and utility executives simply failed to anticipate - or at least act on their anticipation. The consequences of increasing demand without assessing led to a complete system collapse.

Instead of re-building a reliable and functional infrastructure, it was easier - and more profitable - to keep pushing and stressing our nation's electricity grid built on towers and transformers manufactured decades ago than upgrade and replace them with modern day technologies. While consumers spoke in terabytes, our utilities were still speaking kilowatts.

And for the past two weeks computers have been attacked by viruses that literally shut down entire corporations and business channels. And who knows how many work hours were wasted deleting infected emails and restoring infected systems. Why? Because millions of computer users across this country failed to take a few minutes to download a security fix announced over a month earlier. and update their anti- virus programs if they ever bothered to install them in the first place.

Whether we're talking about space tragedies, power blackout, or technology nightmares, the problems are caused by and exacerbated by human error and negligence. In the case of the computer viruses, technology budgets were slashed and organizations just don't have enough people to keep their IT systems up and running yet deal with upgrades an maintenance. On top of that, the vast majority of our workforce just don't own the basic computer know- how to download fixes and update virus programs on a regular basis. And let's not even discuss data backups.

And let us not forget about 9-11. We may not have been able to stop the terrorists from attacking but the attack shouldn't have come as a complete surprise. Again human error - the lack of communication between and within the CIA and FBI - was a contributing cause.

At what cost improved productivity?

For the past decade NASA, the utility industry, and corporate America have reduced staff. Although the bottom line improved and productivity jumped by using fewer people to do more, the question begs asking - at what cost to human lives and long-term profitability.

For example, to cut costs, NASA reduced its staff and contractor work force 68 percent from 1991 to 1997. As the report noted, "the program was operating too close to too many margins." Likewise U.S. businesses cut out nearly 9 million jobs. Bottom lines may have improved but customer service has suffered and major mishaps like blackouts and security breaches have cost more dollars than can ever been saved by slashing payroll.

What is even scarier are the parallels of the Shuttle accident and the electricity blackout to the employee skill crisis in the United States. Is America headed for an employee productivity blackout?

Teachers struggle with basic computer skills while students are searching the Internet and emailing friends during class on their PDA devices. Matures and older baby boomers still struggle with blinking lights on VCRs while replacement workers communicate with Instant Messaging and take photos with mobile phones. Half of the working population struggles with writing skills while business today requires a excellent communication skills including emailing and web research. While businesses struggle to find enough people who will even show up for work, consumers expect on-demand customized 1- to-1 services. Not only is our current talent pool capacity too small to meet these needs, much of the talent we have is too weak and unusable to deliver it.

Despite laudable productivity gains announced last month (August 2003) by the U.S. Department of Labor, you can't help but ask: "how far you can push revenues up with fewer people and inadequate skills?" Surely the economic downturn has forced many organizations to come to their senses and shed excess capacity and re-examine their core markets, resources and products. But at some point you just can't squeeze much more out of the people you have without investing in them or replacing them when necessary.

It's like using space bags to travel. To avoid having to wait in check-in lines and baggage areas when I travel, I've learned to pack light and use carry- on luggage. But every now and then, I find myself needing to carry a suit or jacket or a few extra changes of clothes. By using a space saving travel bag, I can vacuum all the air out of the bag and carry more clothing in less space. But no how matter how compact I get my clothes, I still can't travel without luggage. Signs of fatigue and burn-out keep popping up on management's screens but are largely ignored, hoping they can just keep hanging one for just one more quarter before needing to deal with the problem.

If anyone is looking, the signs are obvious. We're on the verge of a skills blackout of colossal proportions. What are you doing to safeguard your business?

The Talent Pool starts at the top. Click here to schedule a Management or Leadership Effectiveness Program.

To Prove a Point
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Maybe worms, blackouts and hot, hazy and humid days just don't mix - or maybe, just maybe, customer service is hitting an all time low as a consequence of cost cutting. What follows below is my most recent encounter with what I'll call Competent Incompetence - being highly skilled at performing poorly. What's more I'd like to make CSI: Customer Service Incompetence - a regular feature. I can't make promises that your experiences will improve but we'll help you get things off your chest and who knows, maybe someone will actually read your story and do something about it! To share your stories, just click on the link below and in the comment box, describe your "Encounters of Bad Customer Service" or email me at iwolfe@super- solutions.com.

By the way - there are two sides to every story. Are you responsible for customer service in your organization and have an unbelievable story about a customer? We'd love to hear it, too.

Everyone has a bad customer service day. Now is the chance to let it all out. Click here!

This can get really ugly! What is the state of leadership and competence in your business?
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Please take five minutes to complete the SPS Workforce Competency Survey. "Workforce Competency Benchmarking Survey". Your responses are completely confidential and anonymous. Results will be published in The Total View on August 27, 2003.

And PLEASE pass the survey onto a friend or co- worker.

Click here to complete the Workforce Competency Survey - it takes less than 5 minutes.

When "1" is not a valid option!
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If what happened in this customer service encounter wasn't so absurd, I'd be angry. But in a perverse and maybe cynical way, I found satisfaction. It proves my forecast. No way has the Perfect Labor Storm passed. It's not gone and it's not coming - it's here and growing and growing and growing.

Yes, we have nine million people unemployed and hundreds of thousands more who have just given up looking for jobs. But time after time these past few weeks, I have encountered what I'll call "competent incompetence" - being highly skilled at performing poorly - in the people who are already employed.

I recently had to contact the county unemployment compensation service center to dispute the claim of a former employee. Nearly nine months ago I sent him a letter terminating his employment. The cause? In addition to two pages of performance deficiencies, his two week vacation (one with pay) turned into five with no notice or calls about his whereabouts. About two months ago I receive my notice that he filed for unemployment. To dispute the charges I submitted three pages of documentation of performance incidents including the termination letter. Despite this he was still approved for unemployment compensation!

So I called our local office as the notice advised me to do. After listening to a series of messages that had nothing to do with employers, I finally got to the push- button maze leading me, of course, to a recorded message. The message instructed me that I would be transferred to a representative "but if unavailable to please leave a voice mail. If the transfer is not successful, please call the employer's toll-free number (which was provided)."

Okay. So far so good. The next part is just too hard to believe is true. I was transferred to this recorded message, "the number you called is not in service"! Giving our commonwealth more credit than it might deserve, I called again. Now knowing the sequence of buttons to push, I thought this would go a lot easier. No way.

I was still required to listen to every message in its entirety before being allowed to pass "go". The phone police had me jailed. Finally reaching the end of my push-button journey, the same thing happened again. I was transferred to a number that was out of service.

So I called the toll-free number and the story gets even juicier. "If you are calling about your request for relief from charges, please allow 60 days from the time of your request." It's amazing how checks are processed quickly but disputes take months to resolve. The message continued, "Due to the heavy volume of unemployment claims, we are currently working outside the usual time frame and replies are taking a few weeks longer." (I think in government-ese this means, "don't call us, we'll call you.") Like the Energizer bunny on Prozac, the messages continued " if you would like to speak to a representative or leave a message, please press 1."

Finally I thought, I'll get to speak to a human being. I pressed "1". The voice on the other end said, "1 is not a valid option." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

The message repeated, "to leave a message, please press 1". I did and "1" was still not a valid option.

At this point I gave up to try another day. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and the hard-working employees at the Bureau of Unemployment Benefits were gone if they could find their way out of the maze.

Email your customer service stories to iwolfe@super- solutions.com. We'd love to hear them.

Train your employees to become Service Pros. Click here for more information.

Get certified now! Register today for Oct 30 - Nov 1.
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