Work Babble

Undercover Boss: Lucky Strike Lanes

 

UB is still not hitting the mark for me this season. I have skipped the last couple of shows as a review because after NASCAR I was not seeing any of the potential coming out of these undercover maneuvers worth noting. This week I decided to watch and while there were some potential opportunities to improve concessions, equipment processes, or marketing, it fell short to the usual handful of folks getting something but no larger changes for the organization in general.

So I’ll save my detailed summary and defer to a decent overview blog from Lisa Mandell of Career Comeback. Click here.

I don’t know why the producers or bosses behind this show think that a sappy “my boss can’t do my job” premise is enough to keep a show moving. I totally get the marketing piece behind doing this for the companies, but what a better brand it would be if the experiment led to more impactful internal changes. Oh well, I guess it’s the HR guy in me that has to deal with the disappointment.

UB is still not hitting the mark for me this season. I have skipped the last couple of shows as a review because after NASCAR I was not seeing any of the potential coming out of these undercover maneuvers worth noting. This week I decided to watch and while there were some potential opportunities to improve concessions, equipment processes, or marketing, it fell short to the usual handful of folks getting something but no larger changes for the organization in general.

So I’ll save my detailed summary and defer to a decent overview blog from Lisa Mandell of Career Comeback. Click here.

I don’t know why the producers or bosses behind this show think that a sappy “my boss can’t do my job” premise is enough to keep a show moving. I totally get the marketing piece behind doing this for the companies, but what a better brand it would be if the experiment led to more impactful internal changes. Oh well, I guess it’s the HR guy in me that has to deal with the disappointment.

 

Undercover Boss: NASCAR recap

By Tony Deblauwe

 

This week, Steve Phelps, the Chief Marketing Officer for NASCAR posed as Kevin Thomas. “Kevin” is profiled as fan who won a contest to be a trainee in the NASCAR systems. Phelps stated he had two objectives:

1. Better way to connect with fans
2. Understand what goes on with employees

In the first job, Dion, a rear tire carrier, showed Phelps the strenuous nature of the job. Dion felt he had no future once he lost his youth. In the reveal, Phelps appoints him to a newly created Industry Council to provide feedback about work environment, and tells him in the future he can talk to him about a job.

Phelps visits Daytona to work with Glen in Facility Operations and does some painting on the track. Phelps learns that Glen’s son has leukemia. In the reveal, Phelps gives Glen a helmet signed by all the drivers of a particular race then agrees to pay all out-of-pocket expenses for Glen’s son’s treatments.
 
The next job was to market concessions. Phelps met brother and sister team, Tom and Cindy, who volunteered to manage concessions in order to receive a percentage of profits to sponsor Cindy’s three daughters for their high school cheerleading team.   In the reveal, Phelps doubled the proceeds earned which ultimately led to uniforms and some equipment to the cheerleading team.

On race day, Helps worked with Scott, a tire specialist. Phelps helped with a few simple tasks but the sponsored race car had an accident and was pulled from the race. Scott mentioned he felt NASCAR has become too commercial and it has created burdens on families to enjoy the races. In the reveal, Phelps gave an all-expenses paid trip for Scott’s family to join him at a race of his choice. Phelps also offered tickets for all the pit crew families for 2011. 

Bottom-line, this was a very weak episode for me. Nothing earth-shattering in terms of process changes, and even the human compassion side was moderate. So far the season has been lackluster and clearly the main objective seems to be connecting emotionally with a handful of employees (to show the boss has reached out) versus taking these experiences and improving conditions for all employees. At this rate, I am not sure what the appeal will continue to be for this show if going undercover yields such small change management.

Launch of my Facebook Boss Fan Page

Hi everyone – I’m really excited about the launch of my Facebook Fan Page called (simply) Boss. The Boss Fan page offers a variety of resources on bosses and work related topics. I’m getting things started with a “My Boss Story” video contest allowing people to share their personal experience with a good or bad boss. The contest allows people the opportunity to share what works and what doesn’t when it comes to boss relationships. Fans of the Boss page will vote on stories that are most helpful in terms of lessons learned (or a sympathy votes) as well as inspiring anecdotes of good boss practices.

Here is the link: http://www.tinyurl.com/bossfanpage

I encourage Work Babble readers to enter a video or vote as well as participate on the site. Thank you for spreading the word and I’m looking forward to your feedback!



                                              

Undercover Boss – Season 2 Premiere Recap - Choice Hotels

 
By Tony Deblauwe

Sorry everyone - a little late with my review. Thanks for all your emails and messages asking my opinion!

Well it’s time again for the barrage of Fall shows. And I’m ready for the new season of UB to see if more CEO’s can bridge the distance between strategy and vision with rank-and-file employees. The premiere showcased Steve Joyce, President and CEO of the Choice Hotels International. As a customer of many hotels in this chain I was very curious what the nature of his visits would be.

Joyce has an interesting background. He grew up in a family-friendly neighborhood and was accustomed to people helping each other. The center point of this experience was his mom who was very giving and believed that everyone deserved a chance in life. Joyce channeled his upbringing into his experience as a new trainee “competing” with another trainee for the jobs he waded through for the week.

Per usual UB format, he met several hard-working employees each with inspiring stories. There was a handyman for the biggest complex in the region (which was in very rough condition). He worked two jobs to get his son through medical school but had to run around way too much to answer all the service calls. Still, he was happy to provide for his family even though he was tethered to jobs 7 days a week!

The maid service experience was the most brutal for Joyce. There he met Christina and she had the pace down to an art. He learned from her that she wanted to move into the management program but needed money to make it (that she didn’t have being a mom and working full time). Christina was another sharp one and I was really impressed with how she balanced working the corporate ladder with family given the constant demands for service (her hotel is located near a major medical center and the clientele have stricter expectations of hotel stays than the average traveler).

The next person on the list was Brandalyn and she taught Joyce how to run the front desk. Apparently not an easy task as you have to receive customers while doing everything from petty cash counts to laundry sorting. Of course Joyce had a hard time with the timing and pace yet Brandalyn was merciful. Brandalyn was an awesome story as she was a teen mom who worked her way up to management. Nobody believed in her, her family booted her out, but she succeeded nonetheless. I was rooting for her in the reveal for sure!

When Joyce visited another chain to see the corporate sales side of the operations. The salesperson was bright, motivated sales guy who really believed in the business and showed Joyce how to cold call and follow-up with customers who sent them business. The sales call (on the phone and live) was a great moment for Joyce to see another part of his organization where someone came from the “starter” jobs and moved into critical operational roles based on passion and drive.

The customer experience was nominal. When he visited this hotel disguised as a customer, he didn’t like the fact he had to pay for coffee in the place. No doubt part of a cost cutting measure to get the chain entrenched in the region – a decision I’m sure he approved way back when but didn’t think it was a big deal.

The Reveal
No surprise after everyone was SUVd to headquarters they were surprised to find that their nice trainee was the CEO. The handyman was given a full scholarship under a corporate program for his son, Christina’s training was paid plus a few months of expenses, Brandalyn wanted a trip back to Austin to see family which she got plus some personal expenses, the salesperson was given an opportunity to join an elite sales program, and coffee “might” go free at the one hotel (he asked one of his direct reports to look into it).

Overall Impression
It was an “ok” episode. Once again I am concerned about what I feel would make a better show – real impactful changes to corporate policies and process that effect the larger employee population. I like the personal stories and profiles of dedicated employees, but I’m always left asking – so these handful of folks were “lucky” because their hotels were chosen? There aren’t hundreds of other employees with similar or sadder back stories that aren’t just as deserving? What about them? If going undercover ends up primarily as the CEO making an emotional connection with a handful of employees, but not changing anything for the masses, what’s the point? I mean, do these companies really need their executives spending a week with all the undercover fanfare just to impact a couple of lives?

Well this is what I think and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the next episode.  

Labor Day 2010 Book Promotion

I want to thank Jason and Evan from www.iwearyourshirt.com for their work promoting my book, Tangling with Tyrants: Managing the Balance of Power at Work.

They did a great live chat on Ustream and loaded some awesome YouTube videos (click here).

Appreciate the shirt wearing fun and chance to interact with your audience!