The Old Woman's Question

This is a story which sounds too farfetched to be true: it has just enough drama, heroics and dubious logistics to make it unlikely. But there is a lot of value in the idea it conveys, so let me narrate it.

Once, an old woman needed major surgery to correct a life-threatening condition. While on the operating table, as the hospital staff prepared her for anesthesia, she started chatting away with the doctors and nurses around her. She asked each of them a question: What exactly will you be doing during the surgery? She got a variety of answers:

1.       I will be cutting open your chest and enabling the surgeon to access your heart

2.       I will be administering the anesthesia and making sure you feel no pain

3.       I will be fixing the problem you have with your heart valves

4.       I will be sewing you back up after the surgery

5.       I will be monitoring your blood pressure and other vital signs

6.       I am just here to watch and learn

Each of them had a precise answer to give her, perhaps simplified to ensure that she understood what was being said. But the lady was still not convinced. She had one major concern, which she blurted out, presumably in all innocence: “Which of you is in charge of keeping me alive???”

Technically, you can say that the most senior surgeon in the room was in charge of the success of the operation. Or you can say the anesthetist was in charge of making sure she was floating comfortably between consciousness and death, until he/she was ready to pull her back to fully conscious life. They all knew their roles well, and did their best to explain it to their elderly patient. But somewhere during that effort they had apparently lost track of her priority to be alive at the end of the operation. In losing track of her priority, they may have lost her confidence as well.

How often do we do this in business? Aren’t there times when we get so engrossed in the transactional activities we are in charge of that—at least momentarily—we forget the bigger picture?

 

Value creation for employees

Having touched upon value creation through loyalty and its importance in an organization let me round it off with a few more thoughts on the topic. I was having a conversation with a fellow USsociate, who asked me to shed some light on the other side of the coin – Value creation for an employee, by the organization.

I did mention it briefly in a prior edition, but let me elaborate on it a little bit today. It is analogous to the oldest instance of business transactions, which has remained essentially the same amidst all the economic evolution that has happened over centuries. The exchange of value for equivalent value in a different expression is essentially the root of any ideal transaction. On the part of the employee, the value transfer occurs through making use of his/her skills for some activity or result beneficial to the business. The organization running the business receives this value addition and instead, compensates the employee through some other expression of value.

Some of these expressions are more obvious than the others and hence are often mistakenly considered to be more precious than the others. For instance, tangible ones like the salary, bonuses, benefits, stock options, etc are very obvious to the employee. But certain other things, such as chances for learning and development, training options, the attention paid to the employee by the management and even the experience of working in the organization are also part of the value proposition, although they rarely get noticed. Surrounding yourself with quality people will naturally have a positive bearing on your own quality as a professional and as an individual. Working in a good organization is probably the perfect opportunity for this.

Look beyond the tangible value you get from an organization and also take into account what else you are gaining from your professional life.

Loyalty in the Value Proposition

 

In an interesting conversation that came up recently, one colleague was telling me about the value proposition between an employer and an employee. He opined: Loyalty is not one of the effects of a good value proposition. It is a critical component.

I must agree. What does an employee’s loyalty mean to an organization - is it measured by the number of years an employee works for the company? Or does it have more to do with whether the employee is willing to go that extra mile for the sake of the business?

Once upon a time, loyalty may have meant starting your career at one organization and retiring from the same one. But today, an employee is able to recognize the fact that he/she has so much more to offer. If you are a manager, take a look at your own team. How enthusiastic are they in the work assigned to them? Do they collaborate and share ideas to proactively increase the standard of their deliverables? And most importantly – would your team mates recommend your team, and the organization as a fine place to work?

Direct questioning is usually not the best way to do the measurement. The key here is subtle observation and… pardon me…. Reconnaissance! Effectively measuring this would offer you multiple advantages.

1.    It gives you an idea of the loyalty graph of your team members

2.    Tells you ways to increase productivity within your team and inspire people to perform well

3.    Gives you an excellent measurement of how you have been performing as a manager!