2010-09-27

Day Care Update

Starting a business is no joke. And for a guy that's been pretty aloof all his life, this can be a bit of a pain in the ass.


The last two weeks I've been searching for the one person to be my Director. For the idea I have, I needed an adaptable and experience individual who constantly considers and accepts new ideas.

There were two things I believed in coming into this adventure and these have been confirmed in my observations with the day care industry. One, today's workers desperately want to know there's room for growth. They want to have a meaningful impact on the day to day activities of a business. They're not satisfied sitting in a cubicle acting like a cog in a crooked wheel. The thing I noticed in speaking with candidates is many - especially the ones coming out of Cegep - are aggressive. They try to keep all the leverage in their favor. They know what they want and know a good thing when they see it.

The other philosophy I learned along the way (in this so-called life of mine that I think little gnomes are actually controlling) is that the strict, rigid corporate hierarchy so common and so many of us have worked under sucks - or at least shouldn't apply in my industry.

It's not designed to extrapolate the best people have to offer. It makes a mess of available talent on a constant basis. It's a system where merit is often a term used to look good in a board room but in practice it's the sycophants who get the promotions. If a company's boss lack leadership qualities and is incapable of identifying true, independent talent, then it's going to reflect in its hierarchy. Boob 1 is followed by Boob 2.

Some of these places remind me of old style sports scouts, commentators and coaches who refuse to change with the times. Largely because they can't rationalize the change unfolding before them. They've learned a certain way and by golly they're going to stick with it. I often hear arrogant hockey commentators talk suspiciously of "outsiders" as if only people who "played" the game can ever understand how to run a hockey operation.

I'm not and probably will never be convinced of that. By that's a different topic altogether.
We seem condemned to setting up businesses in the same, tired structure where the means of communication is usually the first casualty. Walls are put up in an atmosphere that's basically class warfare between all the title holders all the way down to the minions.

If the top guy or gal is an idiot, there's not much hope for the rest. The one thing I always hated about such structures was how poor the lines of communications were. They were so bad they lead to angry, cynical workers. That sometimes manifest itself into high turn over rates.

It seems like a simple problem to fix but it isn't. It's way of thinking. Of being. To be able to willingly communicate. People are threatened when what they thought was correct is in fact wrong. Or that a worker they just hired actually has a superior idea that can change the face of a company. After all, they're all the way down there for a reason, no?

Is it always the case? I reckon that it's not. I'm sure some companies are pretty good at it but I'm gonna guess most aren't. If the government and law enforcement agencies until 9/11 were essentially independent private feifdoms refusing to cooperate with each other (cubicle menality no doubt), it's not that much of a stretch to think the same happens in companies.

Personally, what I'm going to do is create a team where every single person will be integrated into the business until each is able to perform tasks when needed. Like the circulatory system of the human body, there will a constant flow of ideas being exchanged. If an assistant educator discovers a problem, she will be encouraged to speak out. Not keep it to herself.

There will be no walls. There'll be a hierarchy to keep roles specific in a practical manner, but in a theoretical one, it won't exist.

This will accomplish what I mentioned earlier about personal development. Educators who come to my day care will see there's room for growth and that they won't be shut out of the decision making process so common in day cares. This gives them a sense of empowerment.

It doesn't end there. Parents will be encouraged to take part in the decision making process. My director even suggested one sits with us during interviews. After all, it's their children right?

I'm not arrogant to the point where educators and parents will do as I say because I own the school. That's a parochial, nonsensical approach that harks to a Napoleonic Complex. Too many people get into the business to make cash and to thump their chests.

Screw people like that. Never liked them but they always do manage to be featured in the newspaper or magazine. Media loves assholes I reckon. Darn gnomes.

Anyway.

Be professional, diligent, disciplined and all those blah, blahs. Read. Expose yourself to new ideas. Walk around. Talk to people. We're not infallible beings. Be humble. Make jokes. Above all, don't take yourself too seriously.

***

Of course, there's always a danger I flip out and become a pyscho-tyrant. "Why...why are there so many kids in this place!" "It's a day care sir!" "Who said that, who said that? Don't you think I know that!" "But sir..." "You're fired! You're all fired! And take that kid with you. He's funny looking."

6 comments:

  1. I can't even begin to speak to running a day care, but I have plenty of experience as a cuble cog. The most interesting was my first job in high school as a computer tech for a Fortune 500 company where my father was an executive VP. I would work all day and come home and hear about what was happening at the top.

    One thing I noticed was that people at the bottom are hopelessly in the dark. Maybe people at the bottom think they have great ideas, but it usually turns out to be either a horrible idea that has already been tried and failed miserably, or it's a ship that sailed long ago; the people at the bottom just had no way of knowing.

    This isn't the "fault" of people at the bottom, nor is it the nefarious designs of those at the top. Most large companies (and again, maybe it's vastly different with small businesses) need to run like an assembly line. The sales people sell, the shipping people ship, the customer service reps stroke egos and heal the wounds of disgruntled consumers and business partners, and I helped make sure their computers worked. We were busy doing our job, and it was people paid specifically to oversee all of these operations, who had no other busy responsibilities, who I trusted to make the decisions that had to be made.

    Did I always agree with decisions? Obviously not. Did I wish that the people making the decisions had a little more hands-on experience in at ground level? You bet. But those were all minor things. What really pissed me off is that these people at the top made six or seven figures to do easier work than any of us at the bottom.

    Hell, I'll kiss the CEOs ass and make arbitrary, multi-million dollar decisions for just 50k (though I expect the same, ludicrous amoung of vacation time).

    Those decisions aren't easy, and doing what works is always safer than trying something new and getting your ass fired for it. Strange, really, that people who wield so much power and wealth are simultaneously so timid and meek.

    And good luck getting someone who makes $500 million a year to listen to someone who makes 23k (I made far less as an intern, but that was about what my colleagues made, doing real work, versus the guy who ran the company... who got it from his daddy).

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  2. You're right about the "horrible idea" and "tried that" angle and that they're kept in the dark.

    Heaven knows, some people over value themselves and their ideas.

    But that's my point, integrate them better. Why keep them in the dark? Not saying you have to let them in on every single issue but keep them involved somehow.

    While I don't mind daddy's boy getting the break, I do mind when he's a dipshit moron.

    Some of these guys would have benefitted being thrown in the minors so to speak.

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  3. I also want to make clear I've met execs I respect. You can see why they are where they are. My point is how to best keep the lines of ocmmunication open to avoid A) stagnation and B) to maximize the talent at your disposal.

    I'm sure I'll be tailoring and tinkering with this moving forward.

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  4. I've never met someone who makes more than 100k who deserved it. At some point, the amount of money you make becomes directly inverse to the amount of work you actually do. I'm sure plenty of them seem nice enough if you "meet" them, but try working under them or being a small competitor, then get back to me on what they deserve.

    [And while I know it would be one's first impulse, they don't deserve to die... just to wallow in the "minors," where their spoiled asses belong.]

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  5. How much people are worth is subjective. Markets determine the value of someone. Sometimes they're over paid and sometimes not.

    I know someone who earns 150k in sales. I personally think he's nowhere worth that as a person but he meets his objectives and if his boss him that then that's his worth.

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  6. There once was a salesman. He sold cardboard boxes. He did a great job selling boxes, so good, in fact, that he's the reason everything comes in a box... that is inside a box, and then sometimes other little boxes inside. He made more money as a box salesman than anyone, having "revolutionized" the packaging industry with "Russian Doll" boxing.

    One day he was out running and he was looking down and saw some cardboard on the ground. He kept going and saw more. He passed a trash can and saw many cardboard boxes inside. A garbage truck passing by with filled with bardboard boxes.

    He looked out over the park and saw, in the Hudson river, a trash barge, stacked several stories high, seemingly all boxes. He slowed to a stop, jaw agape. The last anyone saw of him, he was walking into the river.

    The End

    The moral of the story? Sometimes it's best not to think outside the box.

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