LESLIE YERKES

Over the last twenty years, it has been my pleasure to help people and companies create healthy work environments and models for work. As an author of three books, I have had the opportunity to communicate and share my learnings with millions of people. In the course of researching my latest book, Beans, it was my opportunity to interact with a small enterprise that has flourished in the midst of larger, high-powered competition. What my coauthor and I discovered - the 4 Ps and the Eye of Intention - are principles that are good for anyone; business owner, manager, or employee.

The question for us is: Do they apply to the world of Organizational Development?

The enterprise we studied was the El Espresso - a small coffee shop that thrives in the heart of downtown Seattle, home of Starbuck's, America's Best Coffee, and Tully's. Trives to the point, in fact, where it is the first-coffeeshop-of-choice for thousand's of Seattleites in search of a jolt of caffeine. As I learned that formula for brewing a great cup of coffee and for creating a wonderful work environment, I also learned how these lessons are essential to an OD practitioner. The first ingredient, or `P' as we came to call the lessons, was Passion.

Success in any enterprise requires passion. The best lesson in life is to do what you love and you won't work a day in your life. I am grateful to have found in OD a field that is aligned with my personal interests, value, and philosophies for work. Because I am passionate about my work, I am able to bring the best of my whole self to work each and every day. The element that most influences my results in a positive way is my passion for creating healthy and sustainable models for work. For me, passion embodies the notion of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. Similar to Goleman's IQ+EQ equation, I also believe that competence plus passion creates a complete mix that is highly contagious to both clients and employees in creating better solutions.

What is your passion for OD? Do others feel or experience you passion through your work? Can you sustain your passion over time? When you find your passion failing, how do you re-ignite it?

The second P we found in evidence in this marvellous company that engaged its employees and its customers was people. The lessions of people are two-fold: Surround yourself with employees who share your values; choose your clients with an eye to their values being in alignment with yours.

Creating a good staff and team is not only a function of finding people with good skills and trying to make them fit your culture, but also of hiring people of good character and teaching them the skills they will need to be successful in your organization.

I've also learned that I am more successful when I don't just take work based on the financial return but when the work I take suits my passion and the clients and I share similar values. I choose to work for clients who are seeking a partner and not a quick fix. The key to engagement success is the people with whom you work as well as the people for who you work?

With what kind of people do you choose to work? What kind of person are you? Are your clients the right ones? Have you created enduring relationships with those you serve and with whom you work? The staff of the EL Espresso made meaningful and authentic connections with their customers. They created a place where customers felt at home, where the staff knew not only their drink of choice but their names and details of their personal lives. As a result, they created a community of individuals who felt so strongly about their membership that they intentionally and consciously chose not to shop anywhere else. The translation for me was that I do my best work when I know, love and respect my clients.

I know what my clients read, what they like, what they do outside of work, and their personality style. I bring my whole self to my work and I encourage my clients to do likewise. With this largeness of investment, any OD engagement become more than a job; every client represents more than a fee.

Do you treat your clients like friends or like, well, clients? Do you know their names? The names of their family members? What they like and don't like? Can you say the same for your staff? Do you make meaningful connections with your clients and staff each and every time? How do you use OD to create a sense of community?

No matter how well the EL Espresso performed with regard to the first three Ps, if their final P-Product-was not exceptional, no amount of connection, community, or passion would allow them to succeed. The same is true for OD. If our work is not consistent and of high quality, we will not be successful and neither will our clients. As OD practitioners, we must bring our work a dedication to doing right and responsible work, to being an active learner, to growing our skill base, and to knowing the scope of our capabilities. The lesson I've learned is that if I always lead with my best work, my clients will always want more.

Does your product represent the best you at all times? Have you created an environment where consistent service excellence can be sustained? How do you maintain the quality for which you have become known? How do you measure your effectiveness?

The final lesson learned while sitting on the sidewalk in front of the EL Espresso, was to apply the 4 Ps always through the Eye of Intention. That means to be clear on your goals and what you are doing. To know what your end is before you start. To know where you are going before you leave. As an OD practitioner, it's equally important that I not only am clear about my intentions, but that I help the client became clear about theirs. Whenever I have had problems during an engagement, I can almost always trace it to misaligned intentions.

Whether it's from the client engagements I do, or from the research for a book or speech, I find that if my intention is to create deep understanding I first need to apply the learning to myself. The mark of a good consultant is that we don't just apply untested 'stuff' on our clients, but that we apply it to our own lives first to make us the best practitioners we can be.

Leslie Yerkes is an organisational development and change management consultant in Cleveland and the owner of Catalyst Consulting Group. Yerkes has also authored best-sellers like Fun Works and 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work. Her latest book is called Beans; Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad.