Bob Sutton

A Call for Change at United: A Statement from Annie and Perry Klebahn

My last post was about how United Airlines lost Phoebe, my friend’s 10-year old daughter.  All of us involved in this story – especially parents Annie and Perry, NBC’s Diane Dwyer (the only media person that interviewed Annie and Phoebe), and me – were stunned to see how viral it went.  A Google search last night revealed it was reported in at least 160 outlets – including England, France, and Germany with the facts based only on the post written here, Annie and Perry’s complaint letter, and United’s tepid apology.  This blog received over 200,000 hits in the last two days; 2000 is typical.  Annie and Perry have resisted the intrusive onslaught of media people (most were polite, several incredibly rude) and elected to do a single interview with Diane Dwyer.  It appeared locally in the San Francisco Bay Area as well is in a shorter (but I think still excellent) form this morning on The Today Show. Here is the link to The Today Show video and to Diane’s written story on the local NBC site.

I also want to reprint United's statement because it lacks even a hint of empathy or compassion.  Note that it does not question any of the facts put forth by Annie and Perry and also note that no attempt was made to reach out to Annie and Perry until United was contacted by NBC reporter Diane Dwyer. As one executive I know explained -- he is in what they call Global Services, the top 1% of United customers -- even the statement is a symptom of how deep the denial is and how shallow the humanity is in the company:

“We reached out directly to the Klebahns to apologize and we are reviewing this matter. What the Klebahns describe is not the service we aim to deliver to our customers. We are redepositing the miles used to purchase the ticket back into Mr. Klebahn’s account in addition to refunding the unaccompanied minor charge.  We certainly appreciate their business and would like the opportunity to provide them a better travel experience in the future.“

 Charles Hobart/United Airlines Spokesman

Annie and Perry have written a statement below and as you can see, they aren’t going to be doing any additional media and their focus is on persuading United to change its policies and procedures for handling unaccompanied minors.  They ask the media and anyone else out there to please respect their privacy from now onward.

As they request, I will also shift my efforts here and elsewhere  to trying to understand how United reached the point where they are so broken, developing ideas about what can be done to save them from themselves, and to press United to break out of its current denial and start down the road to redemption. 

Here is the statement from Annie and Perry, again, please respect their privacy.

On behalf of the Klebahn family we appreciate your interest in our story.  We feel strongly that United's program for handling unaccompanied minors is deeply flawed and that they need to seriously overhaul this program and their entire approach to customer service.  

Hundreds of thousands of families send their kids on United each year as unaccompanied minors. We sent our daughter away to summer camp, but many families are separated for a variety of reasons and sending their kids on planes alone is part of their required routine. United offers this service, and families like us trust and rely on them to provide safe, secure passage for children. The age of the children United takes into their care is 5-11 years old and not all of them carry cell phones, nor have the maturity to know what to do in an emergency. It's astounding how many flaws there are in United's program but at a bare minimum we think they need to change the following:

• United does not disclose that their unaccompanied minor service is outsourced to a third party vendor--this needs to change so parents can make an informed choice about who they are entrusting their children to when they travel alone 
• If United is going to continue offering this service to families they need to offer a dedicated 24/7 phone line that is staffed with a live human being in the U.S. so that parents have an active and real resource to use during their travel experience
• United should also be required to alert parents immediately of travel delays and alternative plans for the minors in their care

It is still startling to us that after our unbelievable experience it took six weeks, and a press story by NBC, to have United even consider responding to our concerns and complaints. Our only goal in all of this is to have United acknowledge that their program is flawed, and to consider an immediate overhaul before another child gets lost or hurt. Getting our $99 back with a veiled apology means nothing given what we've been through. 

As an organization United is broken. They have the worst customer rating of all airlines, they have the highest number of official complaints on the US Department of Transportation's website, and the largest number of negative comments on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter. How can they not notice that they are doing it wrong?

At this point the important thing for us is that our daughter is safe. We can only hope that making our story public will in some way make an impact by adding another voice to the many out there asking United to change. If you would like to add your voice too, please join our petition to change United's Unaccompanied Minor Program by signing your name to the petition we started on Change.org. 

We would like to thank Diane Dwyer at NBC and Dr. Robert Sutton for their help telling this story.  There will be no further comments or interviews.

Annie and Perry Klebahn

A Perfect Example of a Bad Boss: A Middle School Principal

Last year, I wrote a post about how Justin Snider, who teaches education at Columbia, asserted that "the best principals are PRESENT, constantly interacting with teachers, students, and parents."  I was especially interested in his comment about an intriguing if rough measure of how well a principal is doing the presence thing:

"[A] great back-of-the-envelope measure of whether a principal is generally doing a good job is how many students' names he or she knows.  In my experience, there's a strong correlation between principals who know almost all students by name and those who are respected (and seen as effective) by students, parents and teachers."

I thought of Jason's assertions about the power of presence after getting this depressing email from a middle school teacher about her horrible principal.  This boss defines lack of presence.  I have reprinted most of the story below in this teacher's words, as I found it most compelling.  But note the key point: "She never comes out of her office, and never spends time in the building, seeing how it functions.  I can literally go weeks without catching sight of her."  Scary, huh?

Please read the rest. If you are a boss, you might use this description as a bit of a self-test.  Do you do this kind of stuff? Is this how the people you lead see you? 

Also, this teacher is asking for advice about how to deal with this situation. What would you suggest?

Here is her story. Note she has taught at this school for over a decade:

I teach at a middle school. We have had a superintendent for five years.  He’s no good, but largely did not touch the staff at my school because we had an excellent principal who did as you suggest – she insulated us from nonsense from above her.  When she left for greener pastures, our super installed our current principal.  (No interview process, no panel discussion.  Hooray!)  She’s probably a nice lady: shy, socially awkward, and apparently a “yes-man” for upper management.  She reads books about “ideal” middle schools and then plans how to make ours match her vision.  Alas, her vision after the first nine months was to transfer numerous successful people out of our building.  She then changed the schedule, the teams, the grades we are teaching – essentially, she disassembled the school and rebuilt it from the ground up.

She never comes out of her office, and never spends time in the building, seeing how it functions.  I can literally go weeks without catching sight of her – this in a smallish middle school of 540 kids and maybe 45 staff.  She’s never taught above grade five, and we work with hormonal 7th and 8th graders. She is very uncomfortable talking to more than one person at a time, so doesn’t get “into it” at staff meetings with us.  She has essentially disbanded team leaders, which was the democratic body in our school that used to hash out ideas and plan new strategies, with staff input.  She has no one with feet on the ground feeding her information - consequently, her “ideal” visions and new structures are theoretical only – they are never held up to the light for discussion or dissection, to see if they’re workable or not. 

One example:  we no longer retain students who flunk more than two major classes in grades 7 or 8.  Her rule. No staff input.  Something about self-esteem?  We’re not really sure – she’s never officially discussed or even informed us of this policy change.  We have heard it through the grapevine.  Meanwhile... A student of mine who flunked third quarter was informed by her that he can’t stay back no matter how little work he does for the rest of the year.  Now, Bob,  you’re not officially an educator – but imagine being a lazy 14-year-old boy and being told there will be no consequences for lack of effort in school.  How much time are you going to spend studying or working on homework from April through June?

We, her staff, have seen the ebb and flow of parent concerns, scheduling glitches, social promotion, and poorly-constructed teams. We are long-term and short-term experts in our fields, with decades of experience among us.  She doesn’t ask for our input in how to implement plans – and many of hers hit the ground like lead weights.  People have tried to approach her in a variety of ways, but it’s clear from her reaction to us that any disagreement is seen as a dire threat to her.  She has no confidence, and completely shuts down if she proposes an idea and the staff offers logistical questions or pushback.  We literally do not know how to talk to her about what is not working, because she is so hypersensitive and easily flummoxed that we fear she can’t process it – and we fear more greatly that she will try to “get us” for expressing concerns.

We live in such a well of fear and distrust now, it’s hard for us to function. New superintendent is coming in July.  We are crossing our fingers.  In the meantime, I guess I’m hoping you’ll have some advice.  What can underlings do  to salvage things when the boss is fully incompetent to do the job – and is bringing the walls down around her as she pursues her incompetence?

What do you think? Any advice for this teacher other than to lay low and hope that her crummy boss gets canned by the new superintendent?

Are Incompetent and Nice Bosses Even Worse The Competent Assholes? An Excerpt from My New Chapter

Tomorrow is the official publication day for the Good Boss, Bad Boss paperback.  It contains a new chapter called "What Great Bosses Do," which digs into some of the lessons I learned about leadership since publishing the hardback in September 2010.  I have already published excerpts from the new chapter  on power poisoning,  bad apples, and embracing the mess at Fast Company.

As I am teaching all day tomorrow, I am publishing another here today excerpt here to mark the occasion.  It considers one of the most personally troubling lessons I've learned (or at least am on the verge of believing).  I am starting to wonder, as the headline says, if nice but incompetent bosses are even worse (at least in some ways and at certain times) than competent assholes. 

Now, to be clear, they both suck and having to choose between the two is sort of like deciding whether to be kicked in the stomach or kicked in the head.  And I have even suggested here that there might be certain advantages to having a lousy boss (and readers came up with numerous other great reasons).  But I have seen so much damage done by lousy bosses who are really nice people in recent years that I am starting to wonder...

Here is the excerpt from the new chapter (the 4th of 9 lessons):

4. Bosses who are civilized and caring, but incompetent, can be really horrible.

Perhaps because I am the author of The No Asshole Rule, I kept running into people—journalists, employees,project managers, even a few CEOs—who picked a fight with me. They would argue that good bosses are more than caring human beings; they make sure the job gets done. I responded by expressing agreement and pointing out this book defines a good boss as one who drives performance and treats people humanely. Yet, as I started digging into the experiences that drove my critics to raise this point— and thought about some lousy bosses—I realized I hadn’t placed enough emphasis on the damage done, as one put it, by “a really incompetent, but really nice, boss.”

As The No Asshole Rule shows, if you are a boss who is a certified jerk, you may be able to maintain your position so long as your charges keep performing at impressive levels. I warned, however, that your enemies are lying in wait, and once you slip up you are likely to be pushed aside with stunning speed. In contrast, one reason that baseball coach Leo Durocher’s famous saying “Nice guys finish last” is sometimes right is that when a boss is adored by followers (and peers and superiors, too) they often can’t bring themselves to bad-mouth, let alone fire or demote, that lovely person.

People may love that crummy boss so much they constantly excuse, or don’t even notice, clear signs of incompetence. For example, there is one senior executive I know who is utterly lacking in the necessary skills or thirst for excellence his job requires. He communicates poorly (he rarely returns even important e-mails and devotes little attention to developing the network of partners his organization needs), lacks the courage to confront—let alone fire—destructive employees, and there are multiple signs his organization’s reputation is slipping. But he is such a lovely person, so caring and so empathetic, that his superiors can’t bring themselves to fire him.

There are two lessons here. The first is for bosses. If you are well-liked, civilized, and caring, your charms provide
protective armor when things go wrong. Your superiors are likely to give you the benefit of the doubt as well
as second and third chances—sometimes even if you are incompetent. I would add, however, that if you are a truly crummy boss—but care as much for others as they do for you—stepping aside is the noble thing to do. The second lesson is for those who oversee lovable losers. Doing the dirty work with such bosses is distasteful. But if rehabilitation has failed—or things are falling apart too fast to risk it—the time has come to hit the delete button.

Thoughts?

Peter's Prognosis and Peter's Paralysis: Timeless Wisdom from The Peter Principle

A few months back, I was given the privilege of writing the forward to the 40th Anniversary Edition of The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, written by Dr. Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull (both deceased).  It remains a masterpiece. Very much like Up the Organization, it somehow manages to be both a kind of charming historical piece and completely relevant to the times. And I think it remains the funniest useful management book ever written.  I will be writing more about it now and then, as it is coming-out in April.

I was reading through it again this morning, and even though it is has been just a couple months, it seems even more relevant now, especially the main thesis the hierarchies tend to naturally and powerfully propel people up the ladder until they achieve "final placement" at their level of incompetence.  The book is especially masterful at revealing all the tricks that incompetent people to avoid revealing their incompetence; this morning, I realized that Peter and Hull had beat us to the punch by 30 years in identifying what we called "the smart talk trap" in The Knowing-Doing Gap, the notion that managers often use talk, planning, endless study, and so on as a substitute for taking action.  They provide a list of Substitution techniques; they define substitution as "Instead of carrying out the proper duties of his position he substitutes for them some other duties, which he carries out to perfection." 

My favorite technique is what they call "Peter's Prognosis," which happens because the "The True Substituter can never get enough to evidence" to act."  They explain the logic behind this technique is it "Spend sufficient time in confirming the need, and the need will disappear."  They point out, for example, that if a famine relief study goes on long enough, the need for the relief will eventually disappear!"

Alas, it is true that too many organizations reward such behavior rather than taking action. As I have written here before, the best bosses and organization strike the right balance with the attitude of wisdom, acting on the best knowledge they have right now, doubting what they know, and updating their beliefs and actions as better information comes along.

P.S. I would also point out that Peter's Prognosis is especially pertinent to these tough times as so many organizations are afraid to act, so they keep studying and studying what to do, and since they always need more information and never come up with the perfect answer, they do take no action, and their products are never completed or sold.  So rather than ever actually putting the product out there, they act like Homer in this cartoon, who says "Trying is the first step toward failing."  This might be called Peter's Paralysis.