Imagine a flight attendant telling a passenger that cramped seating and lack of meals is due to corporate greed. If a person in the airline industry, with its record of red ink and bankruptcies, can speak of cost-cutting as corporate greed, what are YOUR employees saying?
This story, which is true, comes from my friend Larry Dennis’s newsletter. My first reaction at hearing the reference to corporate greed was that the airline should script their employees a little better. Larry, however, had a stunning insight: that employees will say what they believe. In Larry’s words, "Frontline employees always tell the truth, whatever their understanding of the truth is."
Here’s the need as I now understand it: your employees should understand the role of your business in the economy, how the company’s financials look, and the moral basis for capitalism. They need a view of the truth that has a more solid foundation than Saturday Night Live skits or Ralph Nader bumper stickers. I’m sketching out some notes on an employee orientation segment. Let me know if this interests you.