I recently flew to San Francisco and back on United Airlines. From Providence, that involves four planes through Chicago s O Hare Airport. Here is a brief report:
1. On the first leg, though I held a first class ticket as always, United rolled up an all-coach aircraft (something called "Ted") and had left a message on my cell phone about the change after I had already left for the airport. Fortunately (for me), an earlier United flight was so delayed that I was able to get on it in first class.
2. The 767 flying out of O Hare didn t really have a first-class configuration. It had 30 seats in front, which is really a business class seating. Two hard-working cabin attendants tried valiantly to take care of all of us.
3. Flying back from San Francisco on a huge 777, we again had a business class, not first class cabin. The flight attendant did a crazy hopscotch of food choices, "rewarding" certain flyers over others, yet we were all first class passengers.
4. On the 737 back to Providence, the gate agent actually tried to convince me to gate-check my carry-on bag, even though I was a first class passenger who has traveled with this same bag on board perhaps 300 such aircraft. I prevailed.
Now, what does this have to do with HR? Simple.
What you and I do is all about trust. It s tough to gain trust, but it s neigh unto impossible to reclaim it once you ve lost it. United, once my domestic carrier of choice, no longer has my trust. American, Continental, and even USAir have truly first class seats (Delta usually doesn t). I m not taking chances with a company or with people I can t trust. Treat me the way I expect to be treated and the way you imply you would treat me.
HR, which suffers from a huge crisis of confidence, both internally and among line customers, needs to deliver what it promises. Training programs du jour and silly labels and simplistic measurement devices don t buttress trust. Trying to understand what line customers truly need, participating as a partner is the design of the intervention, and delivering NOT merely the intervention BUT the results as intended, engenders trust.
I ll pay more money and spend more time with suppliers, venders, and advisors whom I trust. The connection itself is worth a premium. I don t want the cheapest heart surgeon in town nor the most readily available; I want the doctor whom I trust will have my personal best interests and care in mind. Similarly, organizational managers don t need the cheapest or quickest solution, they need the most reliable and efficacious. We re not talking about paving the parking lot or printer ink, we re talking about careers, customers, and collaboration.
From now on, I m either going to have to check the actual configuration of United s planes (and hope they don t change them at the last minute) or go to another more reliable carrier which I can trust to provide me with what I believe I purchased. Guess what I ll do?
Line managers have the choice of the "flavor of the month" and cheap promises, or experts who deliver the results that they promise to improve the client s condition. Guess what they will do?
Alan Weiss, Ph.D. is the author of 25 books, including Million Dollar Consulting (McGraw-Hill) which appear in 7 languages. He runs the unique Million Dollar ConsultingTM Colleges three times a year. You can reach him at http://www.summitconsulting.com, where you can also download hundreds of free articles.
Copyright Alan Weiss 2006 All rights reserved.
