A Small Step to Transform the Business

As the Organizational leadership, how would it feel if you could save precious dollars, get more time for strategy and improve branding?

As employees, what would it mean to you if you got more time for yourself each year, felt happier and became healthier without compromising your career?

Intrigued? Read on…

The Artist and his Painting

An artist who had just completed his course wanted the opinion of people. So, he made a beautiful painting and placed it at a busy intersection in the city. In front of it, he placed a message.

"I have painted this piece. Since I'm new to this profession I might have committed some mistakes in my strokes etc. Please put a cross wherever you see a mistake."

In the evening, he was shattered to find the painting full of crosses. He went to his master and told him that he was not good at painting. The Master smiled and told him that he would prove the painter’s worth.

2 days later, the painter created a replica of the painting. The Master took it to the same intersection and placed it there with a message. At the end of the day, there was not a single cross on it. So, what did he say? We shall see..

The Success of Positive Creativity

In 2006, Disney bought Pixar to boost its struggling Disney Animation Studios. Catmull and John Lasseter (Pixar’s CEO) were appointed the President and CEO of the new Unit respectively. With the new Leadership, Disney began to produce hits such as Tangled, Wreck-it Ralph and Frozen. Disney’s magic was back.

So, what was the secret sauce? The first realization came on the lines of people working long hours 7 days a week for 9 months for every movie. This caused stress related injuries and in one instance, an exhausted employee mistakenly left his child in his car for 3 hours in their boiling hot parking lot. The child was unconscious when found but was saved. But the incident traumatized Catmull and others at Pixar. They decided to adopt a people-first approach over a movie-first approach.

Then Pixar made its vision to “make great films” known. This gave people a sense of pride.

On the ground, there was a need to encourage self-expression and diversity of thought. In this context, too many ideas were being shot down or critiqued without basis. There was a need to combat negativity and extend creativity.

To make this happen, the concept of “Plussing” was introduced. The approach was simple.

1.      Teams did not shoot down any idea during meetings. They gave suggestions to extend it practically

2.      During a review, Open ended remarks such as “I don’t like it” were not encouraged. The reviewer had to provide an alternative or keep his/her peace

Plussing ended up making meetings Productive and Positive at the same time. Hours were saved and beautiful films were made.

Aren’t Our Meetings like this?

Let us go back to the story of the Painter. So, what did the Master write in his message?

"Ladies & Gentlemen, I have painted this piece. Since I'm new to this profession I might have committed some mistakes in my strokes etc. I have put a box with colors and brushes just below. Please do a favor. If you see a mistake, kindly pick up the brush and correct it."

In other words, he used the concept of “Plussing” to stop negativity!

How many times do our meetings go on and on because there are open-ended statements made without constructive suggestions? Have you seen meetings go on for hours inconclusively as people make critical comments without suggesting alternatives?

Imagine going through such meetings day after day - the impact on people’s health, loss of precious Organizational hours, negative branding and personal lives impacted due to Work-Life imbalance.

So, what could it do for your business?

Pixar revived Disney’s business and raised the morale of employees through this approach. Why can’t it do the same for you?

Take a stab at implementing “Plussing” with the following ground rules.

1.      Adopt a top down approach. It is preferable for Exec Management to lead the way. People get inspired when they see their bosses adopting an approach

2.      Recommend that employees prepare for a meeting in advance

3.      Encourage reviews only when they are followed by constructive suggestions

4.      Discourage open-ended statements such as “It doesn’t look right” or “I don’t like it”

At a conservative level, an approach like this could save up to 1 hour per week for each employee who gets into meetings regularly. That translates to 52 person hours per year. For the sake of ease, let us round it off to 50 hours. For an organization of 10,000 employees, let us assume that this positively impacts 50% of the employees every year. That translates to a saving of 250,000 hours annually. Now, assign a cost to each hour and watch the numbers unfold.

As a result, these could be the positive benefits of the approach.

1.      An opportunity to use the excess hours to focus on growing the business

2.      More time for the family and self

3.      A more collaborative Organizational environment

4.      Positive environment that could attract the best talent

5.      Healthier employees due to reduced stress levels (and therefore less medical costs)

6.      Higher revenue due to more billable hours (if employees are healthier)

 Think about it! Have you already got this in place or would you like to make this tiny change and watch the transformation happen? Comments and suggestions are welcome…..

Source and Credits:

1.      Sukumar Rajagopal (Ex-CIO, Cognizant) – Introduced “Plussing” to me through his Storytelling Course

2.      https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-story-of-criticism-take-it-with-pinch-of-sugar

3.      https://connectionculture.com/post/3-ways-pixar-gains-competitive-advantage-culture