Managing Expectations: Who Likes Waiting?

Recently spotted at Ikea:


The most unpleasant thing about waiting in a retail checkout line is not knowing how long it may take.

Kudos to Ikea for managing that expectation:
- Anything before it: "I'm getting close!"
- Anything after it: "It's less than five minutes now!"

I'd like to see the Transportation Security Administration manage airport security lines in a similar way.

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A Simple Employee Engagement Test

Recently finished reading Dan Pink's outstanding book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. (Amazon link; in-depth review to follow soon.)

The book explores many important concepts, strongly rooted in research. But one that really stood out and left me thinking for several days is what Pink refers to as "Reich's Pronoun Test":

"Former U.S. labor secretary Robert B. Reich has devised a smart, simple, (and free) diagnostic tool for measuring the health of an organization. When he talks to employees, he listens carefully for the pronouns they use. Do employees refer to their company as 'they' or as 'we'?"

That's it. Beautiful.

Think about this. What does this simple choice of words say about an employee's level of engagement, loyalty, or advocacy?

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