Monkeynotions

Well it’s weekend time, and that means manifestos are flying everywhere. I call this the Tuna Fish Manifesto because it doesn’t just stink at Yahoo. It stinks everywhere.

Execs are completely out of touch with the people doing the work.

This one can only be explained by examples.

Example 1: Jason Calcanis and his eulogy to Jonathan Miller as a quiet samurai is close to laughable for the normal AOL Employees. I understand Calcanis has opened up debate and has been a polarizing force within, and by no means self-aggrandizing or self-promoting. Don’t forget, Jason is in a privileged position to be able to be polarizing; he has the ear of Miller and was empowered with responsibility of Netscape. (Disclaimer: I’m sure Jason was close to those working on Netscape) However in the end to have such a different view of Miller than the rest of AOL Employees points that Jason and Miller were out of touch with their employees.

Example 2: Ted Leonsis is for some reason loved by AOL Employees. Hey he’s got this cute lovable teddy bear personality and kind grandfather eyes, but he’s out of touch. When asked about his biggest mistake, he said “it was trading Jaromir Jagr for a million dollars.” His dedication to AOL.com was so clear when he even decided to call in from his yacht. The common man can completely relate to him! This coming from someone who decides to blog to reinvent himself, but rumor has it that Mary Cheney writes his blog … way to be transparent, if that rumor is true.

Example 3: Most surprisingly is Sree’s Kotay’s quote how he only saw himself as “having more influence than authority”. I was surprised to see that as to me he was in control of a large initiative and made very strong product calls. Why is he feeling only like an influence when the people were looking to implement what we understood was his vision? Large disconnect that occurred. The amusing thing is I’m sure a lot of other VPs within AOL feel the same way as Sree. If someone that high up doesn’t feel empowered, how can he empower those below him to get things done?

Bottom Line: Upper management and the ones doing the work are not on the same page. This is not just endemic to AOL.

Employees are not robots or workerbees, we are humans who take pride about what we do.
We spend 40 hrs plus at work. This means give us interesting and challenging work. We were hired for our brains not our bodies (okay some for our bodies).

1. Trust us. If you don’t trust us and treat us like human beings, we won’t trust you. Besides have you ever seen an environment full of mistrust where lot’s of productive work was done?

At Accenture, there was a Senior Manager’s whose sole job, I think, was to ask the team lead “Is it done yet, what’s the ETA?” I think the team lead and those around his cube would have gotten a lot more done without the constant interruption of the status report. That team lead and many others left shortly after, which was a large loss as this lead was the most dedicated team lead I had seen.

2. Include us. This also means we want to feel “in” on what is going on. There is nothing worse than having things handed down to us. This is what causes the proverbial rumor mill to go off, which you fear and want to be a part of. We can sniff a party line propaganda a mile away, and can hold you to it via blogs, message boards, and forurms.

Bottom Line: We are human beings.

The most valuable employees are the ones who give a shit. Make sure to provide an environment that can take a lot of shit.

A paradox has occurred were the people who know the most in a corporation are probably the ones who are there the longest. Thus logically making them the most valuable employees. They are the ones who have the most potential of producing. The problem is, those employees that are there the longest are probably the ones most adverse to change or don’t care.

“If you knock out exuberance, you knock out curiosity, and curiosity is the single most important attribute in a world that requires continuous learning and unlearning just to keep up.”

–Kathy Sierra

Passion is the hottest commodity right now. This is what drives dedication. Dedication drives progress. Progress ensures continued success and betterment.

Bottom Line: Passion is the new paycheck.

As Tara Hunt says, embrace the chaos. Let me add, if you don’t, chaos will embrace you.

Technorati Tags: peanut butter manifesto, yahoo, manifesto, aol

Note: Work in progress, please put feedback, stories, additions via a comment or send me an email hollyster [at] gmail [dot] com

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 6:08 pm and is filed under aol. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.