How - Dov Seidman [66]
The ability to keep your head in the game is closely married to the ability to get your HOWs right, to build strong synapses between yourself and others, and to keep them clear and unpolluted in everything you do. If the challenge of living in a connected world requires us to make strong connections with others, we can only do so if we first accept the challenge of making strong connections within ourselves.
Part III
HOW WE BEHAVE
INTRODUCTION: HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO
A friend of mine since law school, David Ellen, is the senior vice president and general counsel for cable, telecommunications, and programming at Cablevision Systems Corporation, a leading telecommunications and entertainment company. In 2005, David and I had a conversation about what LRN was doing and, subsequent to that conversation, I prepared and sent him a personalized packet of information about the solutions I thought might support Cablevision’s journey, including the card of one of our sales executives responsible for David’s area. In mid-2006, Cablevision hired a new senior vice president of corporate compliance, Adam Rosman, to establish and develop a new compliance initiative. In the course of getting the lay of the land, Adam reached out to David. “David had good things to say about the company in general,” Adam said when the three of us got together to recount this story, “and he was candid and up-front about his relationship with Dov.”1 During their conversation, David reflected on the work we were doing at LRN, and he gave Adam the packet I had sent him the year before.
On David’s recommendation, Adam called me and left a message with my temporary assistant, which for some reason I never got. “When I got no response, I thought it reflected poorly on the company,” Adam said, leaving no doubt that he thought something quite a bit stronger. Nonetheless, he was impressed by the materials I had put together specifically for them, and there was David’s recommendation, so he took a second step and left a message for the rep listed on the business card in the packet. “No one in their right mind would do this,” Adam said. “Without David’s additional recommendation, I probably wouldn’t have made the second call.” Lots of people want Cablevision’s business, and Adam is used to getting his calls returned.
But again, no one called back. In the intervening time between when I had sent David those materials and Adam called the second time, the sales executive had left the company. Through a technical glitch, his voicemailbox had never closed and forwarded (another example of the ways technology both connects us and keeps us apart).
A few months later, David bumped into Adam, and asked in passing what had come of his conversations with us. Much to his surprise, Adam told him that, despite leaving a couple of messages, he had never received a return call and that, frankly, he was surprised. “It was inconceivable to me,” David said. “It was totally out of character. I told Adam, ‘Something must be wrong. That’s not Dov. You should give them another chance.’ ”2 The force of David’s reaction impressed Adam. A couple of weeks later, he found himself at a conference with Chris Kartchner, one of my colleagues at LRN. Because of David’s comment, he approached Chris and told him the story. “He was mortified,” Adam said. “A couple of days later, he followed up and explained that they had discovered the unreturned voicemail message sitting in the dead mailbox. He took my ribbing on the subject in good stride.”
When I found out, I immediately called David and apologized. Adam Rosman had basically written off LRN when his call was not returned, and I don’t blame him. How strange it must have seemed to be ignored and disrespected by a company whose business it was to help others get their HOWs right. Although my initial conversation