We’re half way through the Bond University Silicon Valley Study Tour and this line taken loosely from the classic Hunters & Collectors song triggers my key takeaway so far.
“Throw your arms around your customers”
So espoused the charismatic Nuheara cofounder David Cannington around midday on Monday (Nuheara is an awesome Aussie hearables company – check them out!). He had just recounted what I will refer to as the Believe40 story and for me it represents the entire essence of this immersion.
Believe40
Last week a competing hearables startup closed the doors and failed to fulfill on a large crowdfunded product launch, to the considerable dismay of many customers. One particularly disgruntled purchaser took to Twitter to vent, calling on Nuheara to “make me believe again.” Nuheara responded as any progressive startup might, instantly responding and offering a $40 discount on their IQ Buds to any affected by the collapse.
The response was incredible. Believe40 started trending and Nuheara started fulfilling. But it didn’t stop there. Over the weekend David personally emailed every Believe40 customer to offer his understanding of their pain, and to thank them for trusting Nuheara to deliver their truly wireless intelligent earbud experience.
The story is impressive, but not necessarily unexpected for a hungry startup developing a category and hunting market share. The cofounder going to such lengths seems quite reasonable: he should have the pulse of his twitter account; he does have the authority to immediately enable a discount code; he has access to the data showing who used the discount code and is empowered to individually email every purchaser with a personal note. This is the startup advantage: David has his arms well and truly wrapped around his customers.
The real question is how can a larger organisation compete with this startup advantage? Once a firm has passed the crisis of autonomy it relies on employees who are not the founders to act on market news. For the Believe40 story to have occurred in a larger organisation, individual employees would need to have the same attention to detail on the twitter feed; the same ability to create, authorise and launch a discount code; and the same authority to send the follow-up email.
This rarely happens. When we delegate responsibility to an employee we are often lulled in to the perceived safety of a control oriented management system. We set up a governance structure, we provide a position description, monitor activity through KPI reporting, and align actions through bonuses and rewards based on desired outcomes (or more probably inputs…). All of these factors work against the engaged and empowered employee who could match David Cannington’s Believe40 response.
Dan Pink tells us that motivation to perform on tasks that require cognitive skill is enhanced by giving people autonomy in the way in which they achieve desired outcomes. They need to feel empowered to take actions that might not exactly fit their modus operandi and have a sense of security if the outcome is not exactly as they would have wished. This requires both a particular type of person and a particular type of organisation.
The students on the Silicon Valley Study Tour are experiencing this phenomenon first hand. They came prepared with a collection of specially selected readings and are seeing, hearing and feeling the evidence through our company visits. We saw it in spades with David and Nuheara, but equally we heard of the way in which Twitter is using staff selection, leadership style and organisational systems to achieve similar ends. At Omada Health we absorbed the purpose that permeates every aspect of that amazing company.
When we spent time in Salesforce’s Incubator Bond Alumni Hugh Minson shared how clarity in the firm’s values enabled him the freedom to act as long as it was consistent. He recounted the story of Salesforce cofounder Mark Benioff taking a serious stand against Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act when talking about how deeply the company’s values of trust, growth, innovation and EQUALITY were shared by employees. We heard first hand the impact authentic shared values reinforced by action from the top has on the ability of employees to make Believe40 decisions.
Mastery, autonomy, purpose: Dan Pink’s advice to performance when things are not known. I challenge you to think about how you can enable these factors for your employees, and also to reflect on how you are stifling them. Do your employees throw their arms around your customers? Do you allow them to? The lessons from Silicon Valley are clear: you either embrace the startup advantage or face the prospect of losing market share to competitors whose arms are well and truly wrapped around your customers.
^^ The above was written for a commercial audience, and it is also extremely relevant for educators. If you are looking to innovative in the delivery of education you must undertake the same internal analysis: how do you constrain (or enable) innovative activity among your staff?…
