Thanksgiving – A Time to Reflect

The classrooms have been filled with construction paper (brown, orange, red, and other hues of fall colors) scissors, and glue and children are making turkeys, Pilgrim hats and figures, "Indian" headdresses and figures, and other symbols of Thanksgiving culture.  Stories will be told in school about how the Indigenous people of North America (Native Americans) shared their harvest feast with the starving English settlers.

Dinner tables will be filled with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, yams and pumpkin pie -- traditional foods for our cultural day of giving thanks.  At the first Thanksgiving feast, the Native Americans and the English settlers ate turkey, waterfowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash.

For the Wampanog tribe, the purpose of the harvest feast was to give thanks for the bounty of food that the growing season had produced -- for the rain and the sunshine which caused the plants that bore the food to grow.  Giving thanks is integral to the Native American culture.  The harvest celebrations allow a time to reflect on being thankful, to be with family, and to count blessings. 

Thanksgiving has its roots in Native American culture, not European culture.  Consider that the Wampanoags were caring people who lent a hand to the settlers who were, at the time, less fortunate.  They were the heroes.  The holiday and celebration belonged to them, not the Pilgrims.  Yet somehow this has become lost.

Did you know that the day after Thanksgiving is designated as our country's official day to pay homage to Native American heritage and culture?  Somehow, this too has become lost.  Black Friday (and now Gray Thursday) morphed into the official kickoff of the "holiday" shopping season where we pay homage to retail.

As I’m writing, I sit looking out the window on a grey autumn day watching both leaves and rain fall.  I remember the conversation I had with a Native American gentleman two summers ago.  “We should celebrate the rain.  It’s the source of food.”

As the year draws to a close, take some time to reflect and pay homage to the things that are important.  Reflect on accomplishments and celebrate successes in your organization.   Give thanks to the people who made those successes happen.  Reflect on your own organizations culture -- it traditions and celebrations.  Review the past, look to the future and take some time to just be!

Don't Make Assumptions

It was one of four rules to live by that apply to everyday life.  It showed up in an "Instragram"-type photo, the type that circulate on social media pages.   It caught my attention right away because of a situation that occurred a few days earlier.

We were having breakfast at a local eatery and the order came out all wrong.  Since we hate to waste food, we ate it and moved on. Except, I was drawn to the request for feedback so I took management up on the offer.  I sent an email explaining what we ordered and what we received, and attached a copy of the receipt that detailed the order.  A short time later I received a heartfelt apology with an offer of gift certificates for the next visit. 

The same email also contained an inquiry: "Was the cashier who took your order male or female?"  Fair enough question I thought, she wants to get to the root of the problem and correct it. However, it was followed by the statement: "(I bet it was a female since she is new.) We'll certainly go over things with her so she does not make the same mistake again."

This was wrong on so many levels.  First, the cashier was a male, someone who’s been there for a while. Second, as best we could tell, the order was placed correctly and it was the kitchen staff who got it wrong.  One of the items was the breakfast special, an omelet, and the omelet we received did not have the ingredients advertised on the daily menu.  Third, the owner, who was not on the premises at the time, had jumped to conclusions and already assigned blame.  This was a teachable moment and not necessarily for just the counter and kitchen staff, but for the management staff as well.

Workplace problems occur.  Some problems are huge—blatant misbehavior, blatant disregard for policies, practices, etc.  People don’t have the skills to perform the role in which they are placed.  Some problems are small. People make mistakes.  No matter the size or scope of the problem, the problem has to be correctly identified, addressed and solved.   To do that, here are some basic guidelines to consider:

·       Keep an open mind and remain unbiased

·       Get all the facts

·       Ask questions that will give you the facts

·       Listen to the answers

·       Look at any and evidence

·       Use good judgment

·       Consider all the possibilities

·       Don’t make assumptions

In situation presented, someone in management made an assumption and assigned blame without getting all the facts or examining all the evidence presented.  You’ve got to get to the root of an issue before you can figure out how to fix it.  You’ve got to fix the right problem.  I don’t know the root of this problem.  There could have been many contributing factors, including the establishment’s internal processes.  I certainly hope that management didn’t start talking to this new female employee about the mistake they assumed she made before they had the feedback from me that she was not at fault.

People issues at work is one of the biggest challenges.  Don’t avoid them, embrace them with grace and dignity.  When we wrote The Big Book of HR we had managers in business of all sizes in mind!  It’s challenging, but if you treat people with fairness and respect, they’ll be there for you and for your customers.

Honor Heroes

On a flight from Albuquerque in August 2013, my husband Carl struck up a conversation with Robert. Both men served in the Marines during the Vietnam War. I asked Robert, who lived in New Mexico, about the Navajo Code Talkers, who fought during World War II. During a visit to the Balloon Fiesta there in 2006, we met the Code Talkers in Albuquerque’s Old Town. They were selling and autographing copies of their book. We spoke with one Code Talker's grandson, who was trying to capture as many of their stories and histories as possible while they were still alive. As my husband asked each to sign the book we bought, he shook each hand, thanked them for their service, and said "Semper Fi." I was struck by the contrast between him and them. Carl was from a different part of the country, with a different background, from a different generation, and he had fought in a different war. Yet there were ties that bound them. Robert told us there was only one of the Navajo Code Talkers still living.

This past June, the last of the Code Talkers, Chester Nez, died at his son’s home in Albuquerque. Four months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Mr. Nez helped form an elite, top-secret group, the Navajo Code Talkers. Using their native language, they developed an unbreakable military communications code to send and decipher messages critical to the U.S. and its allies in World War II. The interesting thing is that Mr. Nez was sent to a government boarding school by his single father who was struggling to raise five children. His father hoped he’d learn English and other skills that might help him succeed among whites. If Mr. Nez dared to speak his native language at the government school, he was punished. Ironic!

It was after boot camp that Mr. Nez and his fellow Marines learned the nature of their assignment. The Japanese had broken every code used by the Allies. The Navajo language was proposed as the basis for a new code. The language had no written form, used complicated syntax, and had unusual tonal features, all of which added to its complexity and made the code difficult to break. It was a success. Messages were translated and deciphered in 20 seconds by the Navajo Code Talkers rather than the 30 minutes that other systems required. They encrypted, relayed, and deciphered messages about strategy, casualties, supplies, and enemy positions. They participated in key battles of the South Pacific, including Bougainville, Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima.

After their discharge, the Navajo Code Talkers were forbidden to talk about the nature of their service until their mission was declassified in 1968. (No wonder I never learned about it in school!) Because of this secrecy, many had had a difficult time finding jobs when they returned to civilian life because they could not tell prospective employers what they had done during the war. Mr. Nez was lucky -- he was able to get a job at the VA hospital in Albuquerque.

Each Veterans Day should be a time when Americans stop and remember the brave men and women who have risked their lives for our country. Today we have veterans from new wars and conflicts. It's important to honor them and help them with their transition back into civilian life. Last week our guest blogger, Neal Henderson, wrote about why hiring a veteran is a sound business investment. You can read his blog on our website at www.bigbookofhr.com and at www.bigbookofhr.blogspot.com. Let’s honor all veterans for their service. More important, let’s honor those who are now returning to civilian life with jobs.

Honor Veterans With Jobs!

Have you noticed the preponderance of media outlets telling us that we need to hire military veterans? Have you read the suggestions for how to go about doing that? I have, and to commemorate the birthdays of the Air Force (September 18^th), the Marine Corps (November 10^th), and the Navy (Oct 13^th), I would like to advocate for hiring a veteran. I don’t write that because it’s a patriotic thing to do or because the Federal Government is starting to push for more veterans in the workforce; I write it because hiring a vet is a sound business investment.

Aside from the technical skills and security clearances veterans bring to the table, there are five non-technical reasons companies should hire veterans:

1)    They are quick learners.  Veterans have experience learning and applying new concepts very quickly. All branches of the military teach new technical skills and concepts in a very short period of time.  Most initial training is accomplished in under a year, and the higher level technical training takes no longer than 2 years to complete.

2)    Strong Leadership Qualities.  All branches differentiate between leadership and management, and they train everyone - from the most junior recruit on up - in effective leadership. Throughout their tours of duty, each veteran has been delegated responsibilities that are vital to helping the entire team accomplish a mission,

3)    Commitment to the mission, and the ability to work in complex, fast-paced environments.  Veterans have extensive experience working to complete a mission, regardless of the time it took, or the levels of stress and adversity they faced.

4)    Respect.  There is a saying in the Navy: All Navy Regulations Are Written In Blood. Veterans respect authority and have respect for policies and procedures. They understand the stability and structure policies and procedures bring. They also understand the potential catastrophic consequences of not following procedures.

5)    Work well in a diverse work environment.  Few businesses and organizations are as diverse as the branches of our military. Veterans have worked successfully with other personnel from all nationalities, gender and sexual orientations, and religions.

And these are just the five reasons that quickly come to mind; I could literally make this list pages and pages long, but, again, that’s for another post(s).

All veterans want to make valued contributions to the workforce, not unlike most civilian workers, eh? But because of the high number of veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, along with those who have more obvious physical injuries, I think that some employers are nervous about how to make the workplace friendlier to their specific needs. It is, however, surprisingly easy to accommodate these individuals per the guidelines of The Americans with Disabilities Act. One of the easiest things to do is review a job’s requirements and determine the fundamental skills needed to be eligible for it; for example: Does a candidate need a Bachelor’s degree to be considered for an entry-level position? 

So don’t be afraid to hire veterans, even wounded warriors. At the end of the day, every organization needs to hire qualified men and women who are enthusiastic to learn, improve themselves, and move the organization forward. Military veterans have proven themselves; you owe it to yourself to bring them in and allow them to compete for one of your positions.

Neal Henderson

FrontRow Performance Coaching