Personal Accountability

This has always been an interesting topic to me. Some of the events of the last few weeks ranging from athletes punching one another out to kids returning to school seems to make it particularly relevant.

A colleague and I were discussing this topic the other day especially as it pertains to health care. Isn't it interesting for all the debate about whether there should be single payer, a public option, how much it will cost, etc. there is little discussion about the individuals role in the whole health care discussion other than as a beneficiary.

I have some pretty strong opinions on this topic. Among them I believe that all Americans should have access to a basic level of health care much like public education and that until we provide that the costs will never really be managed.

I also believe that individuals have a right and responsibility to participate in the management of their own well being and health. We don't talk about that very much. I would venture to say that the majority of Americans who have health insurance are also covered by a group plan- employer, government agency, association, etc. so they have little understanding of how much their health care actually costs and care less until it impacts them in the way of increased co- insurance, higher deductibles, denied claims, or related activities.

I have mentioned a couple of other related concepts regarding health care like our inefficient delivery and focus on the costs of processes rather than paying for outcome based management, but this is a different issue.

I remember years ago when a new employer arrived in town and declared a tobacco free workplace. People were outraged. How interesting? An employer who took the position that if you knowingly contributed to the detriment of your own health they didn't care to subsidize your real or potential higher expenses so they wouldn't hire you.

We tried to pass a law recently requiring all restaurants to post calorie counts for everything on their menu, luckily it failed. Would we want to extend that to homes like the dram shop laws?

Dram shop laws extend liability to private individuals for serving intoxicated people or allowing them to depart your home intoxicated without at least attempting to intervene. Can you see requiring a menu with calorie counts at dinner parties?

I think a big part of the issue is that of personal competency. Personal competency is that "other" right that constitution provides us with in addition to the concept of personal property.

When we began to industrialize and people left the "farm" many went to work for large employers. Large employers responding to both collective bargaining and offering competitive compensation began offering "fringe benefits" including paid time off, retirement and pension plans, and group health insurance benefits. A few years ago it was not atypical for employers to pay all the costs for health insurance for employees and their dependents. Employees had no idea and didn't care what they cost. Add these third party payer systems to advance health care techniques, technology, and a few other things and we created a trillion dollar health insurance industry, and very high expectations.

Very few employers to my knowledge even today talk extensively with their employees about ways they can contribute to lowering health care costs. The idea of "mandated" health screening, enforced wellness, and sliding employer contribution rates based on lifestyle health care costs would probably be seen as some type of corporate fascism. Your employer shouldn't be able to tell you how to manage you lifestyle, right? Even if they pick up the majority of the cost....

I believe until we address the personal accountability issue and employers
actively engage and educate their employees about the root causes of many of the costs we will only be addressing part of the problem. What do you think?

Social Networking, Engagement, and Change; Are They All Related?

The last few weeks have been very interesting. I continue to marvel at the stories I hear about communications, information, engagement, management practices and a host of related issues.
As you all know I think engagement is the most compelling productivity and profitability strategy since the industrial revolution. I just got what I believe to be some validation from an article I read on BNET summarizing and interview with Daniel Pink.

In the interview Pink talked about why "right brain" thinkers who are skilled at communications, empathy and related skills will "rule the world" and that how "left brain" thinkers especially in English speaking countries could find themselves "commoditized".
His thinking is that many of the highly linear "systematized" left brain skills like accounting, engineering, mathematics, and related activities are relatively easy to transfer cross culturally especially if the "language" barrier is not a factor. He went on to point out that in the very near future the largest population of highly educated, linear thinkers may be in India, not the U.S. or other "English speaking" countries.

He argues that the skill sets that are and will be in high demand are those with creating alignment with ideas, seeing the big picture and being able to articulate in a powerful way to others, and the skills of empathy and engagement. He points out in his research that this may be why many business leaders educational backgrounds are in liberal arts rather than "technical" disciplines.

As you know I strongly believe that the most critical factor in successful organizations is relationships, so you can see why Pink's thinking resonates with me.

I have had the opportunity of late to talk with two different executive groups about what I perceive as the critical link between engagement and social networks. As I mentioned in a previous blog - Tell Me a Story; I see social networking in some ways as returning to our old oral traditions, passing along information person to person.

In some ways just as the Industrial Revolution damaged the social contract and concept of personal competency it largely shifted control over the flow of information to "management". Mainstream media contributed to that phenomena, to quote my friend John Mayer again " when they control the information...". Social networking has returned control in some ways to the individual.

In the "new" engagement model discussed by Rhoads and Whitlark, BlessingWhite, and others they describe the highest level of engagement as being pride of association. You have moved past a transactional relationship with your employees, customers, and other stakeholders to sharing a set of ideals. Is it just me or can others see why using social media appropriately and effectively contributes to this?

As a corollary I continue to be dumbfounded by organizations that do dumb things and some how assume that their actions aren't going to show up on a blog site, and in a big damn hurry! Do we think that our customers, employees, and future employees live on Mars where they can't access that information?

I hear stories about organizations that are perceived as using the recession to practice some pretty Draconian human resource practices; Do they really think this isn't going to show up on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc? Do they really not believe that when the economy recovers that those memories will evaporate? That is the corporate equivalent of the kid not believing his naked beer bong pictures on MySpace affected his interview possibilities!

It is interesting to see what social media is doing in a fundamentalist country like Iran. Do we really believe the Ayatollah is just trying to play well with others?

So I guess my perspective is that indeed there is a relationship between these phenomena. They all come down to the need to build and sustain trust based relationships.

We have already discussed the link between engagement and productivity, sustainability, and profitability. We have seen the power of social media to distribute information (sometimes even accurately) in almost blinding speed. We have also heard that one of the single biggest reason change initiatives and strategies fail is because they aren't properly communicated.

Sounds to me like Pink is right, math and science aren't the answer this time. It's going back to systemic big picture thinking, creating a bridge for people, and trust. Daunting, but not un-doable.