Cogniphany

A friend of mine has an icon that scrolls “One does not simply walk into Wal-Mart. There is an evil there that does not sleep.” It’s a play on a scene from the “Lord of the Rings,” where Boromir is talking about how they can’t just walk into the home territory of Sauron.

But, when I see things like this article from the Wall Street Journal. I begin to believe it more and more.

Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

I was in a Wal-Mart this weekend and every time I’m there, I can’t get out of my head everything I’ve read about Wal-Mart’s business practices. By the time I’m done thinking, I can’t bring myself to spend money there, because it feels too much like I’m compromising my business ethics. Coming up in a couple of weeks, I’ve got a series about how to be a good manager. In the last part of the series, I do a bit of a twist and talk about how to utterly fail as a manager.

In all honesty, if you’d like to see how you can skirt the lines of unacceptable business ethics and even drift occasionally into the sort of area that will (and should) get you sued, do an examination of Wal-Mart. I used to really like Wal-Mart, but ever since the death of Sam Walton the company has completely forgotten the business ethics that it was founded on. This particular story is about Wal-Mart trying to strongarm its employees into voting Republican to avoid the oncoming unionization of Wal-Mart, and the entire argument is based in half-truths.

Sam Walton’s philosophy was to keep unions out of Wal-Mart, but his was one of active, positive engagement with the employees. Basically, you keep the unions out by making sure that your employees have what they need to be happy and productive. The new executives at Wal-Mart have taken Walton’s philosophy and turned it on its ear, bastardizing it into a mantra to use the sleaziest tactics possible.

I read a really good article today that took me to a slightly different place than the author probably intended for me to go to. Although, because of the overall message, I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t mind.

“When IT’s Success Is A Flop”

As a part of his treatment of the subject, he talks about how there can be numerous reasons why an IT project might fail, and theyr’e not always obvious. Basically, many people may have a different idea of what “success” means, and depending on your perspective, one person’s “success,” may be another person’s, “aw, man… I need a new job.”

So, it’s really important, no matter what business you’re in, to really keep an open mind about everything that’s going on around you. You can frequently avoid an office land mine by just being aware and thinking about how someone else might see something that’s taking place.

I’ve frequently advocated that leaders should always work out on the production floor or sit in the cubicle farm for a while. They need that perspective to operate effectively as a leader. As soon as a leader forgets what that perspective looks like, it becomes hard to think like an employee and you have no ability to empathize.

And, you can apply all of this to department on department interactions. Spend time with the IT people, or the design people. At least understand their world a little bit, and also get a little bit a personal connection with them. When conflict arises, it’s a lot easier to bark at someone you barely know or don’t know at all; it’s a lot easier to see another person’s perspective when you have some degree of connection with them.

Sometimes, success in business–and for that matter, life–is being able to step outside of your comfort zone and look at how another person lives.