Wow. How creative. I bet they're going to close out the year with a bang now.

Well? Are they motivated to think they can, think they can, think they can?

The proof's in the pudding, my friend, regardless of how you get there, no?

Eileen, no, I wouldn't say that. I would say that no matter what the situation, an adult in power reading a children's book to a gropu of adults who report to her is absolutely, horrifyingly humiliating, and a sign of either:

A. Insanity on the part of the boss.

B. A sick industry that equates corporate bosses with people's parents.

C. Both of the above. Give me Glengary Glenross diatribes any day of the week to "The Little Engine That Could."

How did they come away from the meeting? Despite having had a lousy product to sell in a hideous sales environment, they left chanting, "We'd friggin' better, we'd friggin' better, we'd friggin better."

They don't want to lose their jobs before Christmas, after all.

Same shit, different day. Have you read Cassandra's blog today?

The business world seems to have a split personality when it comes to employees: many bosses want employees to ACT like adults (work crazy hours, sell crappy stuff by the truck-load) but at the same time frequently TREAT them like two-year-olds who are dumb and easily fooled (Synergy, leveraging, blah, blah, blah).

I've yet to get a single reasonable answer to my perennial question: "How do you figure that employees who are smart enough to work for your business are also dumb enough to not see through the pap you're feeding them about what's really going on??"

Anyone? Anyone?

I would just hope that she gave them shots of something alcoholic before she read that book to them. And Kristen, if anyone has the answer to your question, they are full of it. I told the President of the business division I work with that people were really responsive and appreciated his blog poststhe other day. His response? Complete surprise that his employees would feel that way. AGH!

Excellent question, Kristen. So excellent that I'm going to save it and use it at an opportune time.

Actually, my company has improved significantly in this area. For example, instead of just communicating some upcoming job cuts with the leaders, we also shared that information with all employees - complete with the number of positions to be cut (in the first quarter of 2008) - and it came out under the president's name. He didn't do it under the banner of HR or Corp Comm. His name was out there for everyone to read.

That said, I'm sure there's bound to be some backsliding one of these days and I plan to be prepared!

I don't know how this went down, but I have this picture in my head of a manager sitting a chair in the middle of the room, asking employees to sit cross-legged in a circle on the floor.

"Johnny, don't pull Suzy's pigtails."

"Billy, sit still, or I'm not going to read you this story."

It would be all I could do not to shoot spitballs at the teacher.

I have been involved—on the receiving end—of a few such humiliations. I can't remember them specifically, but I'm pretty sure I remember the feeling, because my face keeps getting hot when I think about this little reading.

Forgive a slightly dissenting view, but a whole lot depends on who's reading from that story book. If she as a great team of people who respect her and have a sense of humor, something like that might actually go over okay. In my long and sordid career I have participated in, and even led, exercises and role-playing games that would curl the hair on the back of David's neck. Some worked, and some didn't. But the ones that worked were huge motivators for everyone involved, and make up some of my best memories of working in healthy, functioning teams.

Here's my fantasy for the situation David describes: that everybody simultaneously--but without discussion--started sucking their thumbs, pinching their neighbors, wetting their pants, crying, or lying down to nap. Sorry, Ron, I just can't imagine ANY situation where being read "The Little Engine That Could" by my boss wouldn't be humiliating. And if my whole group DESERVES to be humiliated, she should just fire us.

Yeah, Ron. The burden of proof is on you here, to explain to us how this could be okay. I know you can, I know you can, I know you can ......

The best example I can think of was when I worked for a big oil company. I as part of a team of front line managers who were charged with improving customer service in our retail gasoline network. We used role playing, movie clips, remote-controlled toy trucks, personal testimonials -- all kinds of goofy shit that would make you cringe, to teach people what good customer service feels like. It was fun. And it worked.

And then there was the time I dressed up as a giant green pea to help communicate the importance of teamwork at a big telco. That one didn't go as well, but it still had a good response from lots of employees.

I'll bet they do this kind of thing at Southwest Airlines all the time, and you love them, David. I think the only telling thing about your story is that you should never belong to a sales team!

That being said, if this kind of thing is done poorly, like bad live theatre, it really, really sucks.

Ron - you are one DEDICATED consultant, and a better man than I...Seriously?? A giant green pea?! Like, WoW!

You make a good point though, doing something slightly off-beat and fun can be a great way to shake things up and re-motivate people.

The tricky thing is that there is a razor-sharp line between "quirky" and "humiliating" once again demonstrating the importance of management being truly connected to their people and understanding what might work to do that.

The difference between "quirky" and "humiliating" is that as a giant green pea, Ron was poking fun at HIMSELF and was willing to look silly HIMSELF for the good of the business. That's quirky. That's fun. It might even help business. It's a far cry from treating other employees like preschoolers.

Jane, I know Ron and Ron knows that as well as or better than any of us. He's just jagging me because he thinks I'm harumphing about ALL teambuilding exercises, 91% of I do believe are degrading and asinine. But I'll give you the nine percent, Ron.

It's just that this one couldn't have possibly been part of that tiny group.

Yes, it is hard to imagine the scenario you describe actually motivating people. Did your close acquaintance say anything about how the sales team reacted?

They were humiliated, but they're in an industry, I don't want to say what it is, that's known for treating people like children. So it wasn't the first time for them, but it was bad enough that my normally stoic acquaintance told me about it, and I know they snickered and/or moaned to each other afterwards.

Oh, so this was a group of writers! :-)

Ron, I spent about 20 years on various sales teams before I got into this communications thing. One of the highlights everyone looked forward to was the annual sales meeting where we all got together in a nice place and tore it to shreds like only a bunch of drunk salespeople can do, but that's another story.

The least favorite thing we had to endure at those meetings was when the consultants came in and made us play those role-playing games and "teambuilding" exercises. That kind of stuff is what made consultants about one step below politicians in the minds of salespeople. Loading up on bloody marys at lunchtime was the only way to get through that crap.

Will