Mister Simplicity Takes CIOs to Task

You are in charge of the systems are in charge of the systems, the structures, the processes. Do they respect the individuals' time, not just company time? I took the CFO, the Chief Financial Officer — the guy in charge of all the money — I made him a cashier for the day. He had to stand at a cash register checking out customers. He said, "I never realized how hard it was to make money in this company." All of you are good people. I don't question your integrity or ethics... But I have a challenge for you. I want you to go do one of your employee's job for one day. You will find it unbelievably complicated and way too hard. We are so dead. We are dinosaurs. Hang it up now. We tolerate those things. Our age group is OK with things not working. The average person in their 20s..."Don't fix these things, I am out of here." For new hires: Average "stay" or "go" decision is six months. These kids will not give you six months... Three months maximum. "Fix my... laptop... my network... my social network... my technology network... my contacts... my workflow... my information flow... Fix them today... Or I'm disengaged or gone. We would wait for years for those things to be fixed. This generation will not. Fix work level details! Transparently. Get used to it. A lot of stuff that you think should be addressed behind closed doors... Transparently fixed. Fast. Now. Do you understand how much of a pain in the ass it is... ...for them to do their work? So if we all really have integrity... ...everybody in this room needs to do someone else's job for a day... ...and really understand it. That's when we begin to understand the work that's needed to build... ...a great place to work for the next ten years. We must start a different kind of conversation. The new Great Places to Work must include... "How hard or easy you make it for me to get my work done." If you're interested in going to the next level... This... [SimplerWork Index] ...is a critical tool. [From tool]: "Make it easier for me to do my best" This is the critical question. Excel at this... That's it. "Make it easier for me to do my best" or face "I'm out of here..." Is part of continuous improvement, continuously making it easier... ...for everyone to get their work done, and easier for them to do their best? That's the new work contract. That's it. How easy is it for me to do my best? How hard is it for me to do my best? And what is your role in making it easier for me to do my best?