How - Dov Seidman [8]
When I saw Angel again, some days later on his regular run, I told him how impressed and grateful I was with the way he owned the situation and did what was necessary to keep the commitment UPS had made. He didn’t hesitate with his matter-of-fact reply: “It’s what I do.” It reminded me of the old story about two guys doing masonry work on a building. The first one, when asked what he was doing, says, “Laying bricks.” The second replies, “Building a cathedral.” Some people see themselves as bricklayers. Angel builds cathedrals. He doesn’t define himself narrowly, as simply a package delivery person. He sees himself as the instrument by which UPS keeps its promises. He makes Waves that make UPS a leader in its field. By thinking of himself in the broadest, most purpose-driven terms, he distinguished not only his company, but also himself, not by WHAT he did—get me the package—but HOW he did it, with forthrightness, concern, passion, initiative, and a sense of being part of something larger than himself. Those HOWs, the quality of his endeavor and the way he was able to reach out to others, allow Angel to make Waves, to enlist those downtown who found my package and got it on a special delivery van to my office.
UPS, in turn, creates the culture that allows those Waves to happen. Angel did not have to go through a chain of sign-offs and approvals to get his overtime okayed or his extra work validated. UPS understands and institutionalizes the HOWs that allow its frontline personnel to get the job done right and to fulfill commitments to its customers with a minimum of drag on the system. UPS and Angel were aligned on common values and behaviors that inspired Angel to do what he did.
In today’s business world, those companies building lasting success, those that seem to be getting it right in highly competitive markets, have something going on in them, a certain energy, very much like a Wave. Waves result from HOW we do what we do. If, sitting in a company’s stadium, gripped by a vision of the way something should be, someone in the crowd feels comfortable enough, inspired enough, and able enough to reach out and connect powerfully to those around them, then great things can happen. To build and sustain long-term success in the new socioeconomic conditions that define our world, you must embrace a new power, the power in human conduct, the power in HOW.
Build success based on how people interact? You may think, Come on! Business is a rough-and-tumble world. Competition is fierce, the pressure to make the numbers intense, and the environment slippery and full of potential downfalls. Sure, it’s great to think about an ideal world where everyone is transparent, is driven by values, is inspired by common goals, treats each other well and fairly, and unites behind the common good; but that’s just not the way it is.
I would be insulting you if I did not acknowledge that we all carry a set of personal experiences that make it seem like some of the ideas I present throughout this book are an idealist’s pipe dream of a world that will never be. But in the pages that follow, I hope to show you that the world that formed and informed most of these prior experiences—the business-is-war, information-is-power, to-the-victor-go-the-spoils world of run-and-gun capitalism—no longer exists. Advances in technology, communication, integration, and connectivity have converged with predictable cycles of history to create a sea change in the way we do business,