My mother was a rather successful fashion designer. Her clothes were sold in New York, Paris and Tokyo. In the early 1980s she had fringes on her collection of leather jackets. One fall day she saw the teenage daughter of our neighbors wearing a jacket with fringes. My mother promptly cut the fringes off all the jackets in the spring collection.
Fashion trends in our line of business
That is how the fashion world works. When a fashion passes the peak, it dies very quickly. Sometimes management consulting feels the same. When I started in the field, satisfaction was the game. Satisfied workers were healthier and more productive than their colleagues. Then, one day it seems, satisfaction fell out of fashion. “Motivation” became the new black. These days, these words are equally cold. “Engagement” is hot, except in the US where “passion” is the game.
Interesting report
Our most inspiring competitor is not an American giant. It is Kairos Future. In their latest report, Karios launches “the third generation of employee surveys”. This new generation focuses less on engagement and more on behavior. Here’s a rough quote from Kairos:
“For decades, corporations and organizations have used employee surveys to gauge the satisfaction and engagement of their employees. The perspective has been that satisfied employees produce satisfied customers, and that the engagement of the employees is an indication of organizational performance. But is satisfied employees a good indicator of corporate performance and the likelyhood of success in our time of constant change? If not, how should we measure (and develop) the future competence of the corporations?”
Engaged employees still satisfy customers
Well, the response to Karios question is ”yes”, which they also admit in the report. Engaged employees do produce satisfied customers. This is still true. It is not a fashion. This is Chanel instead of H&M. A Mercedes instead of a “Smart Car”.
Part of the new in Karios report is a number of old Brilliant classics, such as the importance of feedback and cooperation across unit lines. Analyzing corporate performance, as Brilliant has done for the last 20 years, means these issues come up.
From insight to product
The most exciting aspect about this Karios study is that they have measured corporate behaviors, such as the speed with which the company turns new insights into new products. I like this, and I believe they are right on the money. The turnaround speed of ideas feels inevitably linked to success in staying in the innovativeness frontline.
The idea that every working group in every factory dicusses how they can contribute to the turnaround speed of ideas to products is very appealing. I think Google. Still, I hear that in Apple there were no more than 600 people involved in the Iphone project. There are seldom more than that. My mother’s seamstresses were not allowed to cut the fringes off the jackets. Today the local seamstress may possibly reach the designer by facebook or twitter. The process is unlikely to be much more modern than that. Karios deserves their second name “future”. Perhaps this should rename themselves “far future”.
Do not disrespekt engagement
I do not like that Kairos Future dumps on Engagement. I see no sign of a downward curve there. Engagement drives both sales and innovativeness. Enjoying work also remains important, even though it is about as trendy as the cape and high hat. We do not forget what still works. Chanel still sells beautiful clothes. Even fringes will be back.