Why can’t everyone hear from the end users, eh?

I haven’t blogged or posted on here in about 13 days, which might be a record length for me in terms of inactivity since I started this blog in 2013. If we’re being completely honest, a lot of it is tied to … I don’t see a ton of traffic on here at a time when others get lots of traffic, my email list grows OK but also sees unsubscribes when I send out, and at the same time I get all these Substack emails where someone is saying “Welcome to my 1,597 new subscribers!” So I’ve been a little depressed. I’m making good money this year, which I suppose is “the point,” but I’ve built close to a decade of myself on content I feel like gets mostly ignored. It’s a weird little spot. If you do appreciate some of my stuff and want to tell me, I could use it in the moment.

Anyway — onward.

Here’s a new Nano-Leadership (huh?) tool from Wharton about employee motivation research, including the idea that one five-minute interaction with those who benefit from the organization’s products and services can produce up to a 500% increase in employee productivity.

Nice. I bet most execs would like 500% increases in productivity, no? Personally I feel like I would … see above.

So do companies actually do this?

Some bigger ones, apparently. From the article:

• Volvo collects stories from drivers and passengers about how the company’s safety designs have saved their lives.
• Wells Fargo managers show videotapes of customers describing how bankers’ loans have made it possible for them to purchase homes and pay for college.
• Medtronic invites patients who have benefited from the company’s medical devices to tell their life-changing stories at an annual holiday party. Engineers and technicians also attend approximately 70% of all operations where Medtronic devices are inserted.
• A large global accounting firm regularly gives their back-office accountants a chance to attend client presentations and meet with customers to hear direct feedback.

Is this common in most companies?

Absolutely not, at least that I’ve seen. Most companies hoard information at specific levels, and they have very specific channels of thought about who can talk to who, especially end users (call center reps, customer support account managers, execs) and prospects (sales reps and execs). I get the theory at the broad level — if everyone can have access to prospects and end users, it’s a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation, and someone could say the wrong thing or tank a deal, and that’s bad. Controlling the process, the levels, the access, and the information makes logical sense in that regard.

The problem is, there are so many white-collar jobs where you essentially toil in obscurity checking boxes and process points with no idea who the end users of the thing are, or what they’re doing with it. David Graeber, who recently passed away, used to call these “bullshit jobs,” which is as apt a description as you might find. It’s just digital paper-pushing. Some of these jobs might pop nice compensation packages, but they’re useless and you have no idea what you’re working on except Tom is telling you that you need to work with a greater sense of urgency because some person you’ve never met wants something faster than you can deliver it.

In that sense, I can totally see how having access to end users would make a job more purposeful for people, and thus more productive. John Deere does a bit of this around their onboarding. Plus, I’m kind of two minds on this. I think it’s super hard to achieve purpose at work anyway — work is a transaction for most people, plain and simple — and most “thought leadership” discussions about purpose and work are tedious as all hell.

That said, I’d love more access to end users in different jobs I’ve had. I think I’d actually be a better employee if I had that, but I very rarely have. It’s a bit different freelance because someone is paying you directly, and even if they have end users, your end user is them, via the check they’re cutting. So it’s a bit more direct, and maybe there’s less of a need for end user meetups … but in a white-collar office (or hybrid!) role, it would be valuable.

What say you?