Some of you may have seen or read a book by Thomas Friedman called "The World Is Flat", written quite a few years back. It was a landmark book when it came out, won the Financial Times - Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. It was a futuristic book, which was very well received; Friedman was pointing out that there were changes coming and the world needed to take note. In his concluding chapters, he references Margaret Whitman, who was then CEO of eBay. She has since moved on and is now with HP. But she gave ten years of her life to eBay, took over in 1998 and served till 2008. During her ten years with the company, she oversaw its expansion from 20 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue.
He references her and talks about the time when she had just gone public with eBay. He says that one day they were looking at the way things were going on – they had gone public in September 1998 in the middle of the dotcom boom – and stocks were going crazy. She says, "One day, I was just minding my own business, when her secretary came up to her and said that Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission that oversees the stock market), was on the phone." They are always concerned about the volatility of a stock, whether there is manipulation and so on. In those days, for a CEO to hear that Arthur Levitt was on the line, was not a good way to start the day.
Meg goes on to say, "Before taking the call, I immediately called up my general counsel, who came over to her cubicle and was as white as a sheet. Together we took the call on speakerphone. Levitt said, 'Hi, this is Arthur Levitt of the SEC. I don't know you but I do know that you just went public.' Basically, he made some small talk, wanting to know how we were doing. Finally he said, 'Actually, another reason why I am calling is that I just got my tenth positive feedback on eBay and I've earned my yellow star and I'm so proud.' She then realized why he had called – he was so happy about what had happened on eBay, that he was validated by the company. If you have done anything on eBay, you will know that you get points for being a good seller, you're rated by the buyers and the community itself builds up a points table for you. 50 points gets you a blue star, 10 points a yellow star. The point was that the head of SEC was so proud that he was validated by his peers on eBay.
Thinking about that, I pondered the context that eBay had created for validation of people. Validation is so important – to be able to validate one another is so important for our own well-being. As one user said about eBay: "Where else can you wake up in the morning and see how much people like you?" so true! "Every human being," says Whitman, "Arthur Levitt, the janitor, the waitress, the doctor or the professor, needs and craves validation and positive feedback." And eBay created the context for that kind of feedback.
This made me think, in the context that you and I are, do we create a context for validation, of making people feel good, of helping them to have a good positive outlook? When people are happy and proud to be part of a community, creativity increases. "Validation," as Whitman says, "doesn't have to be money. It can be anything - a point system, commendation letters letting people know that they have done something worthwhile."
The second thing that I wanted us to think about this morning, beyond validation, but also having to do with context, because context is so important in the areas that we are involved in. the challenge for you and me is: Do we create a good context in the places that we are in for people who are working with us, for us? Are we unleashing creativity so that they are able to be all that they ought to be? Or are we putting boundaries around them and then getting what we want out of them? This is what the top-down model would create: here's the problem, here's the solution, fix it. Rather than here's the problem, how do we fix it?
Looking at the second, again it comes from eBay. Whitman says that one day she got an email from a couple in Orlando who was coming to an eBay live event at which she was speaking. They asked if they could come backstage to meet her after her speech. So, after the keynote address, she says, "They came back to my green room. I couldn't believe it. In comes mum and dad and a 17 year old boy in a wheelchair, very disabled with cerebral palsy." They told her, "Kyle is very disabled and can't go to school. But, he built an eBay business and last year, my husband and I quit our jobs and we now help him. We have made more money on eBay than we ever made on our jobs." Then they added the most incredible sentence. They said, "On eBay, Kyle is not disabled." It all happened because they created a context for a disabled person to showcase what he was made up of. And his parents quit their jobs because he was earning far more than they could individually.
How do you and I create contexts in our workspaces? Let me throw out a couple of ways that you can begin to think about.
· When you have meetings, do you allow for a platform where everybody can perform?
· When there are issues to be talked about, do you give space for both introverts and extroverts, or is it only the people who jump the gun first who are able to speak?
· Is there a level playing field for both left-brained and right-brained people? That's always my challenge when I make a speech, because 50% of your audience is always left-brained, the rest right-brained – creative on the one hand, analytical on the other. When you speak to them, are you making sure that you are communicating to both? Or, if at a larger level, at a bigger meeting where you have different personality types, do you meet with all the personality types? Are you speaking to every personality type – the choleric, the sanguine, the phlegmatic, the melancholy, the perfectionist? Have you created a level playing field in your office spaces?
It comes down to context, doesn't it? It's all about context. Do we create a context where people are validated; they feel good about what they are doing? Have we created a context where it doesn't matter what kind of people there are – different personalities, how they are made up, where everybody gets to say or do what they need?
Thomas Friedman says in his book: "When you have a pathway to be the Man or Woman, you tend to focus on the path and in achieving your dreams. But when you have no pathway, you tend to focus on your wrath and on nursing your memories." How true! If you give people a pathway, a place for them to move forward, then you allow them to be proud of whom they are. I'm the Man; I'm the Woman – able to do things creatively. But when you don't have a pathway, then you tend to focus on the things that you are angry about in life. You nurse memories and you better believe that everyone who comes into your office space brings in a couple of suitcases of baggage that is their past. And if you don't create the environment for them to forget their baggage, to move forward and embrace the future, then they will focus on the baggage, and in so focusing, bring down the team and what you are trying to achieve.
It's all about context and I love the way eBay has done it. Maybe we can take a leaf out of that today and create our own context that will increase validation – positive feedback for those who work with us and also level the playing field so that creativity abounds. That's my prayer for you, for me this morning that we would create the context for a good atmosphere for people to be who they ought to be.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, give us wisdom, for we cannot do it on our own understanding, to see beyond what is visible and to be able to even hear what is not audible and do those things we never thought possible, because you are with us, leading us and giving us the wisdom to create good context in the work spaces that we have. Help us to be good leaders, good managers, good workers, so that people all around us will be able to be who you created them and us to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• Margaret (Meg) Whitman, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Whitman
• Thomas L. Friedman "The World is Flat." http://www.amazon.com/The-World-Flat-Updated-Expanded/dp/0374292795/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0RY1DHGMX7QB02560EXC Pages 619-625
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