The Cranky Middle Manager Show #117 Managing With Maslow- Chip Conley
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #117
Welcome everyone, to the podcast that cares for your needs- survival needs, comfort needs and even the transformational needs. That’s right, listening to this show makes you cooler than everyone else, and we all know that’s what drives middle managers…the need to be cool.
Today we talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy, and I get to geek out with Chip Conley. He’s in no fewer than 3 national business magazines this month, so I guess we’re now just part of the slathering media crowd. Cool.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. It’s dedicated to YOU- hey it worked for Time Magazine. Actually, if you listen to this show it’s because you aspire to manage your team and serve your customers at a higher level. It has to be, it sure ain’t for the quality of THIS show (guests excluded).
3:00 The quote of the week is all about making your mind hospitable…since Chip runs hotels, see, there’s a theme.
4:09 Welcome Chip Conley, CEO of the hotel chain, Joie de Vivre, and author of PEAK: How Great Companies. The point of the book is that you can use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to run your business. What the heck is the Hierarchy of Needs, and where does caffeine fit in it?
8:09 How does all this help in a business where employees spend their time cleaning up after other human beings, turn over is high and most don’t speak English as their first language? Chip gives some great examples of how to use this practically.
12:30 Most employees leave not because of money, but because of a lack of recognition. The top level is Meaning…. what does it matter how you define what you do?
The trick is to move from a job, to a career, to a calling. How do you define YOUR job?
18:40 People climb that ladder pretty quickly. What initially looks cool starts to fade out for both employees and customers. Let’s face it, customer sat numbers don’t count for much over time. The ladder goes from Meeting Expectations to Meeting Desires to Meeting Unrecognized Needs.
22:34 Chip extends this to investors and how people invest their money… how does a company build value beyond mere economic ROI?
26:00 Who’s Chip reading?
Elements of Persuasion Maxwell and Dickman
Made to Stick Dan and Chip Heath
October 27th, 2007 at 3:38 am
I like the idea of this as it relates to business and makes sense as a strong rule of thumb, but Maslow does have his critics though… perhaps they don’t pertain to the business world though.
One example where Maslow doesn’t is of the starving artist who works with vigor and joy but can’t put food on the table. It would seem to me that these folks are not focusing on the money and perhaps not even on the recognition, but wholly on the calling. An example that strongly points it out is Trachtenberg, who developed a new method of mathematics while in a German concentration camp.
A brief on Maslow, his theory, a criticism and response to the criticism is here: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
great show!
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:43 am
I’m a massive Maslow fan – his theory makes a lot of sense. The artist, as the noted exception to the rule, is making the point that one of the things differentiating us from our mammalian cousins, is the need to feed the soul combined with the ability to make decisions which override those baser needs. Isn’t that why we find unrequited love, artists suffering for their destiny etc so romantic, engaging and “heroic”.? This is going to come across as a crass plug but my own work of the heart (it certainly isn’t going to feed my family on its own), Brand Engagement – Why Employees Make or Break Brands, has this theme at its core. The days of spin, alignment, forced compliance are finally on the wane and as more and more people rediscover some form of “calling” rather than someone else’s ideology, who knows, it may even make a difference in some small way.
I look forward to more Cranky Middle Manager postings – let’s face it, line managers and supervisors are the true heroes in todays faceless, automated, process dominated coprorates!
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Ian