An open letter to Mozy

Dear Mozy,

I’m writing this letter to you on my blog because you haven’t made it easy for me to contact you directly.  You did respond to my Tweet on June 1 and said you’d get back to me, but you didn’t get back to me.  I guess that’s the state of service these days – we have to make it public to get a response.

Here’s my gripe:

Sometime around May 28 your automatic online computer backup service stopped working.  This is a real conflict with the positioning statement prominently featured on your website:

At Mozy, we believe: You shouldn’t have to think about backup.  Backup should be set once, and then work automatically.

I've now had to think about backup and it didn't work automatically (or manually, for that matter). I’d be willing to cut you some slack if you handled it responsively, but you didn’t.  You posted a few updates on your Community Support Forum, responded to a few Tweets, but that seems to be about it. I read some techno-babble about "load-balancing issues on your server", but I had to dig around your website just to get that. I tried to login to your support site so I could submit an trouble ticket (no email support, really?), but I couldn't because I got an error message there too.

My backups started running normally again on June 9 and I’m still a Mozy customer for now.  However, I don’t think I’ll refer anyone else to you for a long time.  And, this service failure has caused me to do what you said I shouldn’t have to: “think about backup”. 

Do I have any better ideas?  Yes.

1. Communicate proactively. Let us know there’s a problem and what you are doing about it. 
2. Cast a wide net.  Not everyone is going to troll through your support forum to find answers.  Give us more options!  Put updates on your home page.  Send us emails.  Give us the option to get automatic updates. Tweet timely updates. Make sure your support site login is working correctly. Give us email support.
3. Be contrite.  In my eyes, you’ve massively damaged your brand.  Not just because of the service outage, but because of the way you handled it like it was just another technical glitch. What will you do to earn back my loyalty?

I hope you get it right Mozy!!  I really do want to continue using your service but, like you said, I also don’t want to think much more about online backup. 

Your friend?

Jeff

Three tools to handle tough times at work

A recent study by Right Management found that 60% of workers intend to leave their jobs when the economy improves. Many of my friends and colleagues are in that boat too. Their jobs are demanding more work for less pay, the boss seems unsympathetic, and morale is at an all-time low.

Unfortunately, the job market doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get a lot better, so I am offering three simple tools that will help improve things now: a circle, a book, and four squares.

Circle

It's amazing how much we can accomplish if we stop worrying about what we can't control and focus more on what we can control. I like to use the Circle of Influence to help visualize this for any problem.

Let's say I'm dissatisfied with my job and I'm worried I might even get laid off. I can't control the economy and ultimately I don't decide whether the company keeps me or not. But what about the things I do control? I can make myself more indispensable than ever. I might realize that my boss is feeling the same pressures I am and try to be a better employee for my boss. I can enroll in some training classes after work or join a professional association to become more competitive in my field.

People can use the Circle of Influence to look at their own situation, stop feeling like a victim, and take control.

A Book

Books can sometimes fuel inspiration, provide great ideas, and kick-start us into action. Love it, Don't Leave it: 26 ways to get what you want at work is that kind of book. It's full of practical exercises to help you get what you want from your job.

Four Squares

Some of the worst companies I've worked for have provided me with the best job experience. Every job has its ups and downs, but it's important to continue to be productive and mentally present as long as you are physically present. I recommend a simple exercise using four squares to help maintain perspective on whether your job is really right for you.

First, clear your current job from your mind.

Second, get a blank piece of paper and draw the four squares shown below:

Third, brainstorm a list of criteria for each box. This forces you to separate what you must have in an employer and a job from what you would like to have.

Finally, compare the four squares to your current gig. If you are missing any 'must haves' it's time to plot your exit strategy. If all your 'must haves', it's time to put your nose to the grindstone, read that book I mentioned, and focus on your Circle of Influence.

Good luck!

The workplace is getting dumber with each new rule

Workplace rules are generally instituted for one of two reasons. The first reason is there was an incident where something went wrong and management wants to make sure it doesn't happen again. The second reason is management anticipates something will go wrong if they don't create a rule. I saw this sign in the men's restroom at one of my client's offices, but couldn't bring myself to ask why this rule was deemed necessary.

It's a good idea to have a few good rules, but something weird happens when we get too many. We suddenly lose the ability to think for ourselves.  We forget what we're supposed to be doing in the first place and spend our time trying to be compliant (or avoiding trouble for non-compliance). We get paralyzed with indecision when we encounter a situation that isn't covered by a rule. In short, we get dumb.

Consider the sign above. What if I wanted to wash my hair in the toilet? While that's certainly an idiotic idea, it's also not covered by the rules. I know what you are thinking. "Why would anyone want to wash their hair in the toilet at work?" I agree it's a stupid notion. Almost as dumb as drinking from the toilet, which I definitely won't do now that's it's clearly against the rules.

A more realistic example? A supervisor I work with recently told me that he wished his employees would stop passing the buck to him all the time and start making more decisions for themselves. When I observed this team I realized they had a rule, regulation, or policy for nearly everything they did. These employees were so used to being governed by rules that their only solution for something out of the ordinary was to pass it along to the boss. And what did the boss do? Make up a new rule!

Yes, we still need a few rules, but less is more.  

What's new in learning and performance? ASTD ICE 2010

The American Society for Training and Development 2010 International Conference and Exposition is now complete and I'm happy to report on what's new in the world of learning and performance.

Nothing.

I realize if I stop here this would be a pretty short post so let me expound. There's nothing new, but the conference did reveal current trends and greater insight into what drives employee performance. The risk and the opportunity lie in whether we recognize that the fundamentals never change even when the technology does. Here are my three biggest take-aways from spending a week with 8,000 of my closest training friends.

Autonomy vs. Control: The debate

This old debate was raging throughout the conference. Autonomy proponents suggest we need to free our employees of restrictive policies, do away with rote learning in training classes, and give in to the inevitability that employees will find a way to use social media tools in the workplace whether or not our firewalls allow it. Control proponents worry about employees running amok on Facebook and Twitter, they desire more predictable outcomes, and they see a need for certain members of our workforce to toughen up, get in line, and embrace a little hard work for a change.

So what works? I met Arthur, a training and development leader with Motorola, who told me that they used informal communities to share knowledge and ideas that have generated huge (and quantifiable!) improvements in productivity and cost savings. The way to get these learning communities to work is to have a clear purpose (ex: all about product "x"), provide a moderator to stimulate discussion and participation, provide some guidelines for participants using the communities. In other words, a little autonomy and a little structure.

Boo or Hooray, Social Networking is Here to Stay

Twitter was on fire during the conference. If you'd like, check it out for yourself by searching #astd10. So what?

On one hand, social networking tools like Twitter represent a new way of learning, collaborating, and working. On the other hand, the best social networking you can do at a conference with 8,000 attendees is to meet people face to face and have a conversation. In this sense, social networking isn't a new concept at all. Our opportunity as people who lead, develop, and support others is to understand how social networking technology can potentially make traditional social networking happen faster and with a broader audience. Our risk is reallying on technology so much become anti-social. When you get an email, IM, text, Facebook post, or Tweet from someone sitting right next to you, you know things have gone too far.

New Mediums, Old Rules for Communication

The way we share information in companies is changing, but the rules of effective communication remain the same. For example, reading this blog may give you some interesting food for thought about trends in employee development. I must also acknowledge that visuals make communication much more effective and my blog, particularly this post, is pretty lacking in that department. It seems I also have some work to do!

A great gem on new mediums, old rules was a session I attended on webinars led by Becky Pike Pluth. Webinars have become our fast and cheap way of avoiding meetings, training, and travel, but they've also devolved into mindless info-dumping. I met a training professional named Bill who summed it up by saying, "Before I sign on to a webinar I make sure I've got all my other work lined up so I have something to do while I'm logged into this thing."

How can we apply old rules to webinars? A few tips from Pike-Pluth were to include interaction every 4 minutes, open and close with high-energy activities that get people engaged, and to provide a hand out just like you would in person. I can't wait to try these techniques in my next webinar.

If you attended the conference, I'd love to hear what you think. If you didn't attend, it would be great to get your thoughts too. Please drop your comments below.

The hidden power of hidden knowledge

I know a lot about markers from spending more than fifteen years as a trainer. That statement may not be too interesting to you until you realize the true value of inane knowledge that only comes from experience. Find a way to identify this knowledge in your own organization and you can save time and money while improving productivity.

Weird marker fact
Many a whiteboard has been ruined by someone accidentally writing on it with a permanent marker. The good news is you can generally fix this in a few minutes.  Just take a whiteboard marker and trace over the permanent marker so it is fully covered. Then, spray whiteboard cleaner on a cloth and wipe down the surface. Voila! The permanent marker is gone. 

Bored by marker facts? Maybe. But look closer and you'll see that over the years I've saved countless whiteboards from destruction and expensive replacement.

Put hidden knowledge to work
There's real value to finding and capturing hidden knowledge in organizations, but it requires you to go against the grain of top-down management. Here are three simple strategies to making the most of the weird knowledge your experienced employees have stuck in their brains.

#1 Capture It
I learned how to save a whiteboard from one of my experienced trainers when I was a young training supervisor. We captured this great technique for all future trainers by incorporating it into our train-the-trainer curriculum. This gave us a whole team of people who could save an expensive whiteboard from doom.

Find ways to document and capture the wisdom of your experienced employees so you can share it with others.

#2 Proceduralize It
I was once tasked with helping sales reps at a catalog company improve their ability to pitch the company's credit card. Our company-wide acceptance rate was 5%, but one employee consistently got more than 40% of her customers to sign up for the new card. What was her secret? She had some natural sales ability but she also congratulated her customers on being pre-approved when she presented the offer. It was a strange approach that turned out to be highly effective. Our average acceptance rate jumped to 20% when we made this technique part of the standard procedure for all our reps.

Experienced employees often find more efficient ways to get things done. Why not make their process the procedure for everyone?

#3 Use them as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
I once worked for a company that sold collectibles and novelties from the former Soviet Union. It served a niche to be sure, but it also made for an eclectic range of product issues and questions. Fortunately, I had several experienced employees who were all interested in different product lines. I put each one in charge of education for the products they liked most and suddenly found them challenging each other with fun quizzes, training new employees on our products, and developing relationships with collectors they could call and sell to when new shipments came in.

Your experienced employees have a lot to share. Give them responsibilities that allow them to use their knowledge and you might be surprised at how much they contribute!