A Great Workplace is defined by the Work Environment created by the corporation’s values. Values include a safe place to work, quality of work output accomplished by people who are both connected to their work and cognizant of how their behavior affects others. A Great Workplace cannot allow workers who are affected by self-induced changes of reality:

By Max Reinhart
MReinhart@News-Herald.com
@mreinhartnh

With Ohio’s unemployment numbers still high, more often than not, employers with job openings have their pick of numerous qualified candidates.

But according to a state study, some of an increasing number of job candidates take themselves out of the race by failing employer-issued drug screenings.

The trend was spelled out in the Ohio House of Representatives’ Legislative Study Committee on Workforce Development Chairman’s Report.

In the report, the committee’s chairman state Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Oxford, called the correlation of unemployment to substance abuse “distressing” and a “real issue” facing Ohio’s workforce.

“The committee heard that many employers cannot find workers able to pass a drug test,” Derickson wrote. “Some witnesses suggested that staying on unemployment or in a treatment program is often preferable to an out-of-work individual over finding gainful employment.”

The trend makes sense to Angela Amistadi, staffing manager for Garfield Heights-based Champion Personnel System, which also has offices in Mentor and Middlefield Village.

Amistadi said although she invariably comes across job seekers who cannot pass a drug test, those people shouldn’t be surprised that they’ll likely have to take one.

“I’ve been (with Champion) nine years and we’ve always done drug testing,” Amistadi said. “Even if a client doesn’t request it, we do it anyway.”

In her experience, about 5 percent of all job hunters will admit to the staffing company that they would not pass a drug screening. Another 5 percent will say they can, and fail.

However, Amistadi said those figures aren’t anything new. What has changed, she said, is the technology of drug testing and the number of substances those tests can detect.

Here’s the new list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/full_list/

Working in and for the CORE of the small to medium size workplaces in Midwest USA, the list is about as real for the rest of us as Disneyland.

Here are some facts: There are 23 million companies in the U.S. 4% of those get to $1 million in sales, and typically have fewer than 10 employees. .4% get over $10 million in sales( “POINT 4%). 17,000 companies get to $50 million ins sales (still under 1,000 employees). 2,500 get to OVER $500 Million ins sales and 500 get to 1 Billion in sales.

The companies on the published list are all over $1 billion in ASV.

We can’t compete with 100% paid health, 21 days off to do social work, slides, 60,000 square foot Day Care facilities or $125,000 staring salaries for “entry level” college grads. After all, we have to work for a living and make a profit.

But here is something ALL smaller companies can do: Create an environment that will be attractive for Solid Talent, Sustainable corporate existence and growth, and simply a “Great Workplace”.

It is productive, profitable, fun and the “Right Thing To Do”. Best of all, you don’t have to build a $20 Million day care, a two-story slide or spend millions on “The Next Thing” that your employees expect.

Be Remarkable:

http://thegreatworkplace.com/2389/it%E2%80%99s-not-how-big-you-are-its-how-remarkable-the-great-workplace-2-0/

This site is all about creating the Great Workplace 2.0, and not going broke in the process.

Onboarding content is geared toward answering the questions: “Why should I join you, why should I become invested in your organization, and on a higher plane; why are you in business (how does that concern or motivate me)? How is what I am going to do for you going to affect your customers? How can I feel that I am engaged with our customers’ reason for choosing our company?

The process is not expensive, it is profitable. It doesn’t steal time. It invests time for short and long term payback. It creates a productive culture. “Culture” is defined as “Values, in action”.

Immersion (Onboarding) answers the question “Why”, and provides a clear vision of a person’s (or organization’s) function, goals, expectations, opportunities, challenges and future. It defines values, purposes, rules, and engages an individual (or organization) in the “Vision” that pushes the organization forward. It defines each individual or vendor’s impact on the ultimate customer. It focuses productivity. It focuses effort.

Many small to medium size company executives and managers hesitate to implement a formal Onboarding process after reading how “Big” companies do it. (For the purposes of this article and in future mentions in the book, “The Great Workplace 2.0”, we will use “Onboarding” and “Immersion” interchangeably.)

Here are a few of the common reasons why small to medium sized organizations have not yet implemented a system:

1)    “We don’t have the money the big guys have””

2)    “We’re hiring people to do jobs NOW, not in six months”

3)    “Our Line Managers won’t understand it ”

4)    “Our HR department doesn’t have time to do it”

5)    “We do a pretty good job of training new people to do their jobs”

6)    And the most prevalent reason:

“I am not confident we have the right things in place on a daily basis. Not yet.”

The compelling reason for conducting Onboarding to the absolute best of your ability is simple: The “Social Contract” between an organization and its Participants (Stakeholders) has changed dramatically, and forever. To increase productivity (Contributions) and therefore profitability (Growth), the organization needs to Engage all participants at higher intellectual, emotional and practical levels than before.

A Participant to the success of an organization who is engaged and feels a true connection to that organization will be more positive, more productive and be more predictable than those who feel little or no connection to the outcome of their work.

Onboarding or Immersion is (simply) reducing the time to productivity, increasing the desire to be successful with an organization, and creating a “Bond” that makes high contributions easier.

It answers the question: “Why”

Why should I work here? Why should we be your vendor, other than one transaction? How does working with or for you enhance our personal or organization goals?

In talking with CEO’s, HR Managers and Line Managers about not having implemented true Immersion processes for new hires, vendors and contractors, one factor holds true on a company to company basis: Lack of Confidence in their own organization’s structure, values, and “Why work with Us”. They do not believe they can compete with other “highly attractive” organizations as seen in business magazines, award ceremonies and in investment circles: “Well of course they can get the best talent/vendors/board members. They are big, successful and can pay more”.

There are great vendors and talent out there who want the challenge of getting you to where you want to be, not just riding the train someone else has already set in motion.

The facts are, that you can, and you need to implement an Immersion process … if you want to grow, if you want to sustain.

Oh … and when you show your potential customers how your own staff and vendors have been engaged for The Customer’s ultimate benefit, you may just close that deal. It will differentiate you from a competitor. Customers like vendors who are totally engaged in pleasing them.

Next: How to create a simple, yet effective base Onboarding/Immersion program, that will get visible results. And, how to merge it into your sales presentations.

In a recent Smart Business News article by Nine Sigma’s Andy Zynga he cites: “Open innovation is really all about companies going outside their four walls to seek knowledge, technologies and innovations from around the world.”

Nine Sigma provides open innovation services to businesses by taking confidential needs summaries and approaching potential solution-providers.

“Answers come from industries that you would never have expected”, says Zynga. “Once you start going outside your own four walls, it’s a catalyst to collaborate more internally because (you) learn how to do that. They learn how to ENGAGE with outsiders, to trust, to have relationships, to understand (technology) positions and it helps to collaborate internally”.

The Great Workplace has discovered that the most sustainable organizations have learned that “Collaborations” (for innovation or addressing any business issue) that are external yield profitable results. Where do they go?

1)     Internal team members that are not within the department where the issue or opportunity has begun. Fresh eyes, but ones attached to the Purpose and Missions of the organization can lead to many “Ah Hah” moments and ideas from serendipitous encounters fueled by differing points of view.

2)     Vendors. Who knows your industry better than a wise vendor who deals with your competitors or has schooled themselves in your industry’s best practices?

3)     Community: Local business executives, the population as a whole near you, want you to succeed. They may have ideas that have not passed through your own staff.

4)     Association members you connect with for other reasons:JohnCarrollUniversity’s Entrepreneurs Association is a talented group of 250 business owners and service professionals who are all successful These men and women have run into your issues before. The JCUEA also has an internal Business Advisory Network where selected members confidentially address your concerns or opportunities.

5)     Your Board or advisory board: Most often, boards are used for compliance or structural gate-keeping. The members should be successful business people in their own right, and if working with them is painful they will be able to introduce you to potential experts.

The one expert resource least used is Vendors. And that alone is a shame. Don’t think that a vendor is only narrowly engaged in the one product (s) or service (s) they offer. Their top management could be expert in the exact issue you have at hand. Ask. Chances are they will willingly consult, for free.

“Answers come from industries that you would never have expected”. Wise man Andy.

I’ll leave you with a fact: P&G is innovative. Their products dominate the consumer-goods arena: Did you know that 70+ % of their innovations now come from “Open Collaborations” and asking for innovative thinking … from OUTSIDE their own company.

What do you think?

As a CEO we seek the ability to “get in front” of our business, to set the direction, to set the pace and to set new goals. To some, this is easy, to others it is a constant chase.

Where is the divide between those who can get in front, and those who are on a constant chase?

Values. Values that when acted upon by the presence of a solid corporate Purpose driving all participants, create a self-sustaining set of actions that are aligned with customer goals. Values answer the questions: “Why?” and “What should I do now”, and “What is expected of me?”.

The Great Workplace defines an organization’s Culture as “Values in Action”. If you don’t have a KNOWN, supported, and visible set of values relative to the conduct of business focused on the customer, then the business runs on the value of drama du jour. The CEO and Managers may have firm and true beliefs about how the business should be run, some complicated, some simple. But do the rest of the participants to the success of the organization have those same set of beliefs?

What are your organization’s Values? Are they focused on the customer? On the Participants (employees, customer, board, vendors, community)? Or are they simply focused on your “Mission”: “To become the best in our business …”?

Do all Participants to your success know and believe in your values?

Participant defined:http://thegreatworkplace.com/1534/participant-in-the-great-workplace-2-0-defined/

In the late ‘60’s I had the honor of performing at Cleveland’s Agora night club, where next-door neighbor and owner Hank LoConti (Uncle Henry) had a sign that said simply:

“There is nothing more frightening than Ignorance In Action”.

A lack of values is not only frightening, it will produce actions that Hank meant to make one think about.

What do you think?

“How are the kids?”  “They’re pretty good. Good grades, Good kids, but I have been spending a lot of time recently on supply chain issues.”

And so it goes.

Most “I’m having an issue with…” discussions are really pronouncements of frustration, not solution-seeking conversation-starters. Perhaps that is a characteristic of the owner as the Lone Ranger or Marlboro Man: they will solve the problem on their own. No desire to show the other wolves that they are damaged.  And: “You cannot understand MY business … the way I do.”

Agreed. No one can, and for the most part, neither will you, completely.

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” was Steve Jobs admonition and encouragement  to the graduating class of Stanford University. By “Foolish” I am certain he meant: Curious. Without  Preconceptions. A Blank Slate (The Tao Of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff), Open and willing. To think that Jobs meant “Be slack-jawed” simply does not fit his model.

A corporate manager who does not stay hungry or curious is on the road to intellectual dissolution. The organization soon follows.

Guy Kawasaki (Innovative thinker, Apple Guy, respected business advisor) wrote in a recent blog post about “Changing The World” (the things I learned from Steve Jobs):

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.

When Apple first shipped the iPhone there was no such thing as apps. Apps, Steve decreed, were a bad thing because you never know what they could be doing to your phone. Safari web apps were the way to go until six months later when Steve decided, or someone convinced Steve, that apps were the way to go—but of course. Duh! Apple came a long way in a short time from Safari web apps to “there’s an app for that.”

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/#axzz1dQwvxSP1

Changing your mind, both with Honor and Foresight simply begins with the question: “What do you think?” If you ask that with sincerity, it is asking for EXPERTISE, not for “help.” It is also an indicator that one is ready to change they way they think. The old solutions may not have today’s answer.

I have also observed a few smart business owners in social gatherings work the room seeking expertise and advice. They don’t make pronouncements, they don’t cut in quickly to an answer, but they always ask: “What do you think”. These owners always walk away with new directions of thought. Some to ponder and research, some are “Ah Hah” moments. They are ready to change, in a small way, or even in a huge way. They are looking to improve.

Steve Jobs literally stole, borrowed or coerced most of Apple’s and Pixar’s ground-breaking ideas. He of course, had a visionary perspective as his foundation. He demanded new ideas. He demanded excellence. He demanded innovation and more innovation. Had he stuck only to what he knew, Apple would have failed. His approach was not simply asking “what do you think” it was “What do you think that no one else knows?” And then demanding innovation, analysis and more creativity.

To create a Great Workplace is to “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Few organizations look at their business as a “Product.” That’s what they make, not where they work. Change your thinking, look for ideas, demand change and you will create a better organizational “machine” from which to make better products by better people in a better more productive environment. Become REMARKABLE. The Great Workplace has that template. It is how to build a Remarkable organization.

A great allegorical example of “change” or innovation comes from a Steve Jobs interview in 1996 for a PBS special segment called “The Parable of Stones”:

My favorite part is when Jobs answers the question “What’s important to you in the development of a product?” with a dig at John Sculley’s Apple (AAPL) and a parable about a can of rocks:

Jobs: “You know, one of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left was John Sculley got a very serious disease. It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people “here’s this great idea,” then of course they can go off and make it happen.

And the problem with that is there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship between a great idea and a great product. And to evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it. And you also find there are tremendous tradeoffs that you have to make. There are certain things you can’t make electrons do. There are certain things you can’t make plastic do. Or glass do. Or factories do. Or robots do.

Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.

And it’s that process that is the magic.

And so we had a lot of great ideas when we started [the Mac]. But I’ve always felt a team of people doing something they really believe in is like when I was a young kid there was a widowed man who lived up the street. He was in his eighties. He’s a little scary looking. And I got to know him a little bit. I think he may have paid me to mow his lawn.

And one day he said to me, “come on into my garage I want to show you something.” And he pulled out this dusty old rock tumbler. It was a motor and a coffee can and a little band between them. And he said, “come on with me.” We went out into the back and we got some rocks. Some regular old ugly rocks. And we put them in the can with a little bit of liquid and little bit of grit powder, and we closed the can up and he turned this motor on and he said, “come back tomorrow.”

And this can was making a racket as the stones went around.

And I came back the next day and we opened the can. And we took out these amazingly beautiful polished rocks. The same common stones that had gone in through rubbing against each other like this (clapping his hands), creating a little bit of friction, creating a little bit of noise, had come out these beautiful polished rocks.

That’s always been in my mind my metaphor for a team working really hard on something they’re passionate about. It’s that through the team, through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights sometimes, making some noise, and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas, and what comes out are these beautiful stones.”

Assess yourself and your organization against, “The 12 Attributes Of  A Great Workplace.”

What do you think?

The president of Smart Business recently wrote a cogent article on Money Versus Meaning, relative to the workplace and people. This article reflects the values of a great workplace that we have been writing on since 2006. Similarly, Harvard Business Review recently published an article supporting 6 great workplace values that you have already read here on The Great Workplace 2.0:

http://thegreatworkplace.com/2642/harvard-business-review-how-great-companies-think-differently/

Fred Koury’s (Smart Business) article focuses on Vision and could also be replaced by our term: Purpose. (A goal, vision, mission beyond money).

Fred’s article, like all of his works, is absolutely worth a good read. If you don’t have it in print, here is the link to SBN online:

http://www.sbnonline.com/2011/11/money-vs-meaning/?full=1&edition=cleveland-editions

It’s not how big you are, but how remarkable.

Common Vision.

Work toward that vision.

Create excitement.

Reward people.

Fred Koury: Wise man.

Jeff is an exciting speaker, an effective and profitable business and relationship coach. If you do not know Jeff, you should: www.thinkagaincoaching.com

Congratulations my Brother!

An eleven page PDF worth reading:

http://hbr.org/hbrg-main/resources/pdfs/comm/oliverwyman/how-great-companies-think-differently.pdf

In addition, Collins argued, “We found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for themselves … Celebrity CEOs, at those same decision points, are more likely to favor self and ego over company and work.”

Researchers from John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal are currently expanding on their 2009 study that reveals a disturbing conclusion: Management ego is a better indicator of the possibility of financial fraud than corporate governance practices. They connect “managerial hubris” to bad corporate decisions that destroy value.

Mission: Why we do what we do for us.

Purpose: A higher motivation

The issues are a result of large corporations having a lack of “Intelligent Self Interest”. ISI is simply defined as taking into consideration the effects of your actions on others with whom you are connected or who play a role in your journey, and adjusting your direction to minimize negative results for all involved.

The targets on Wall Street are not Great Workplaces, let alone great places to work.

From the book “The Great Workplace 2.0”:

A great workplace functions at a higher level of purpose and productivity and is a more interesting place to work than other organizations. It attracts great talent and it attracts great results — for the customer.

It extends its intelligent self-interests beyond the executive suite into the depths of its own employment, into the rich treasure troves of vendor knowledge, the community and to all participants (stake / shareholders). It reaches out to the crowd within its community for opportunities and solutions. A great workplace understands intrinsically that being “open” is an advantage. When it reaches, it extends its hand in a positive manner both internally and externally looking for strengths and sustainable principles on which to further grow the business and the opportunities for participants. It simply does not adhere to the old model of corporate hierarchy and held power. A great workplace of today invites being benchmarked, but is always one step beyond being so static that its definitions are fluid.

Components of a Great Workplace that are missing in the targets of “Occupy Wall Street” are:

1. Statement of Purpose: A great workplace has a meaningful Corporate Statement of Purpose that is the foundation for corporate culture and therefore provides greater meaning to employment and work opportunities. This statement is driven by the affects the organization has on their customers and the role each participant can play in that directive. Purpose becomes an ethos that creates the very foundation for The Great Workplace 2.0™.

2. Collaboration: A great workplace is committed to fostering a collaborative, productive, engaging and rewarding culture that encompasses customers, prospective employees, employees, vendors, participants and the community. The organization practices collaboration to the extent that “internal and external” no longer have a distinction, and it recognizes that “community” has no true boundaries.

5. Intelligently Profitable: A great workplace has a financial focus on being intelligently profitable. This qualitative focus is founded in sustainability, the values within their purpose and a view of intelligent self interest for the organization and all participants. Intelligent self interest is defined as self interest that stands the test of, “how will my plan affect others?” It defines who the customer really is.

10. Management shows and invokes visible, tangible leadership: This core action directly supports the organization’s Statement of Purpose and operating plan. This leadership preserves the integrity of the organization’s purpose, and is both duplicatable and repeatable — at any level.

11. Transparent Integrity: A great workplace practices this as a core value. It is the proof of “Say what you do, do what you say, and prove it”. For The Great Workplace, Transparent Integrity, allows an inside or outside skeptic to see that PR and reality match. In essence it says: “Yes, we really do”.

12. Values: The ability of a workplace to be great should never rely solely upon being big or rich. Great is a value, and values can never be bought. Jim Collins in, Built To Last, defines it this way: “It is dedicated to the idea that true greatness comes in direct proportion to the passionate pursuit of a purpose beyond money.” Values are CULTURE, and culture is the (mostly) unseen core of what makes the organization a living, breathing entity. Culture is the focal point of intent.

One thing that all great workplaces have in common is this: they’re remarkable (worthy, noticeable and unique). Not because they have excessive benefits, bonuses, on-site daycare, or a slide that takes you to the ground floor, but because the entire organization has a purpose that is built around an ideal: do what’s best for the customer.

The entire world would be a better place if organizations would simply follow the principles of The Great Workplace 2.0. But all people inside and outside need to hold these organizations accountable.

See all the attributes of The Great Workplace 2.0 here:

It’s Not How Big You Are It’s How Remarkable

The same technical innovations that caused a drop in factory employment over the last two decades are now opening up rewarding and challenging job opportunities for people who paid attention and took notes in high school math, science and computer classes. Factory machines are substantially smarter now than before, more like the computers that run them, and they need smarter more focused men and women to make them work.

The New Blue Collar Workplace: Brains and Brawn. You provide the brains, the machinery provides the brawn.

The payoff:

First, you will be in demand. Yep, there are jobs looking for YOU. Second, when you join a manufacturing team and have interned (been trained by professionals) long enough to know what you are doing, you will begin to make important industrial products from start to finish. You will be the engine behind turning a concept or idea into something you can touch and feel. You will know where that part or product will be going, what larger product it will be used in, who will be using it and why. You will be able to see how the quality of your efforts makes a difference to a product or to another human being. In many cases you will be making parts that are “Success or failure” critical to the end-user. If the part you make fails, it could cause harm to another person.

And, you won’t be pushing the same button all day long.

What does your three-foot circle contain?

Your values, your knowledge, your fears, your confidences and your prejudices. It contains all the pushes and pulls that make you, well, you.

It also contains one small but powerful nugget that is at your core:

That nugget is the ability to learn and grow, or the ability to stay static as life moves forward in time. The energy that moves that nugget one way or the other is conscious choice.

Conscious choice is what keeps you at the stage you are today, or moves you forward to become a better version of YOU.

By choosing to learn, grow and be a better version of yourself, you decide to EXPAND your circle, like a rubber band, and include the circle of other people in yours.

From those people (and events, and history, and places) you will accumulate knowledge and VIEWS of things you did not have before.

If you begin that journey with the thought: “First seek to understand, then to be understood.” It is the person with curiosity, who first grows … and then is sought by others wishing to grow.

“First seek to understand,” needs to be the core of your three-foot circle’s content library.

I want to learn something, from you, that will help me grow. In turn, I’ll offer you something that may help you.

I want you to tell me something I don’t know, that you do know. I want to reach beyond my Three-Foot Circle and become better than I was this morning when I awakened.

You see, I can’t learn much from CNN, FOX or Channel 19. At least not beyond the 5 minutes at which time they begin to repeat their “reporting”. They don’t think. They mimic. I can get that anywhere.

And when they have an “expert” on their broadcast, that expert is confined to 3 minutes of “overview”. Nothing of substance. Gotta get the host’s personality in there and some moronic comments, then off to commercial.

I want to learn from someone, something that makes me say “Ah-Ha, I didn’t know that”. Or at least something that makes me cock my head and say “Hmmmm”.

Is it that we are not thinking and formulating discoveries we should share with others? Or is it that we keep our knowledge to ourselves. If so, then what value do we receive from “social networking”? It cannot be that so many people have nothing of substance to share.

It seems that social networking is simply the 1950’s version of a phone “Party Line” (yes I am old enough to have been on those) where stay at home housewives talk about their hair, the wash or the new neighbor down the street.

Misused, potentially great resource, relegated to an online reality show with no real stars?

The value is in sharing what you have really thought about, not in some knee-jerk opinion. The value is in sharing something that will solve problems, boost the economy, create jobs and create a new great idea.  Or how to do something at home. The value is in challenging others to think and grow. And by doing so, growing your own life.

Then again …. Whaddya havin’ for dinner?

Time to fire up that iPad 2 and watch a couple TED videos!!!

Your Three-Foot Circle:

It is where you live. It contains your perspectives on life, the world around you, your opinions, and your “do’s and don’ts. Your “lens on the world” is attached to it.

Inside your three-foot circle is a translation device. It converts all you see and hear to language you understand. It interprets the outside world to terms and concepts that fit within Your World. The device is built upon your logic and rules.

It is your safe place, the cardboard box you climbed into as a child, and it contains your dreams, your fears, and your pleasures.

It is where you hide the idea that YOU should be understood, first and only, and that other people or ideas are simply inconsequential to your life.

And now it will be the one comfortable place that will stop your development, stop your learning, and stop those who wish to connect with you, from actually connecting.

Or … it will be a highly flexible circle, capable of expanding to encompass others, new concepts and ideas that just very well might expand who you are, the impact you have on others and the impact they can have on you.

With a Three-Foot Circle that is expandable, you might change and grow.

But you will need to reject some of your early training and some of the fears you have, and in many ways the influences you have received that whomever you are today, whatever your thoughts are and whatever your pre-conceived ideas of your Self are, those may be resisting your future growth, and happiness.

Change is met with resistance by many of us who think that who we are today is sufficient.

We have all learned this in many ways, but our kids (or you) learned it from Mr. Rogers:

“You always make it a special day for me. You know how, don’t you? By just your being you. Whether you’re in kindergarten or third grade or no grade at all or ANY grade at all, I like you just the way you are. I’ll be back tomorrow. Bye.”

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was a baby-sitting substitute when the kids needed calming or we just needed our own space. The program was mesmerizing to kids. And…we should have watched along with them. Big mistake that we did not.

“Don’t Ever Change!”. “We love you just the way you are!” Live in a fantasy land and everything will be okay. (And, “don’t talk to strangers!!!”) In other words: Stay in your three-foot circle! Don’t venture out, but when you do, it will all be a make-believe world.

Personal growth comes when you flex your three-foot circle to include others’, and therefore to expand your own reach. It changes and expands your world view and allows you to understand other points of view, new ideas and new realities. You may discover new ways to live and think, and more often than not, have new “ah-ha” moments.

From Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Habit #5:

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

It is the core to expanding your Three-Foot Circle. It is your calling to grow.

And you know those people whose circle is wide: They are the ones who first ask: “So, what do YOU think?”

An organization with many people who have expandable, flexible circles, is on its way to being a Great Workplace.

(First in a series of articles, and a book of the same name)