Book review- Human Sigma by John H. Fleming, PhD. & Jim Asplund
This book came recommended, thanks. As the title suggests it looks at business through a human lens. It clearly demands an end to “Terminator Management.”
By Terminator Management, the authors are referring to the concept that businesses are made up of a collection of people forming thoughts AND performing tasks. Terminators look at humans as a liability as well as an inherently inefficient method for conducting business. Humans think and feel too much. They also can make errors!
Google may be a perfect example of TM. Everything in their line of services is devoid of human interaction. If you need an answer to a question, you are directed to a FAQ or to send an email. Live people manning a call center? No way. While this fact is definitely core to Google’s business model, it is a very sterile way to do business. I use their services and all is fine when things are working, but I am not convinced that my voice will be heard if things are not working.
The basic concept here is that Employee and Customer relationships are directly linked. If you would like to change something in the mix, you need to measure both of these areas together, not separately. They measure this with the HumanSigma Metric. They tie this metric to financial performance so as not to bring a meaningless metric into the enterprise.
“When you stifle human interaction by attempting to legislate the steps to service, you sacrifice real quality,” This comes about when employees are not allowed to think outside the box or color outside of the lines to keep their customers happy. Scripting how your employees (literally or figuratively) will not endear your company to influentials.
For sure, Zappos does not follow a terminator management model.
“Not everything that can be counted, counts.” This quote is used in the book and is credited to Einstein. (This quote is very relevant to online marketing, but that is a discussion for another day.) In sales management, salespeople are sometimes strongly encouraged, or mandated to make a certain number of calls per day. This is usually recorded in SalesForce or a similar CRM system. This type of “management” takes nothing in regarding the quality of calls made by the sales people, it is just a metric that can easily be reported on, but does nothing to endear customers or employees to management or the company overall. “Manage outcomes, not behaviors,” say the authors to this. I say to a former a former boss-“It’s not a numbers game, Sorry.”
That is the overall concept of this book. Employees are feeling people. When they are allowed to be more human, instead of occupying a cell on a spreadsheet, better things will come for the company overall. The employee will feel more empowered, thus more engaged, and these sorts of activities are demonstrated to provide better financial results for the company. The key is to measure both the financial as well as the human element of the company together instead of non-related silos of information.
Due to the macro economic environment and resultant lean operating conditions, it appears to me that companies that adopt the HumanSigma mindset will both survive and thrive. I believe that the old ways of doing things are gone forever. I recommend that you review the concepts in this book and adopt them for your own.