What I Learned from The Dog Whisperer

I don't currently own a dog, so it's probably a little odd that The Dog Whisperer is one of my favorite television shows. Even though the series ended in 2012, it's still on in syndication and I often find myself pausing to watch when I surf by.

What is a dude with no dog learning from Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer? 

Most people call Cesar because they think they have a dog problem - the dog is barking, the dog is destructive, or the dog is aggressive.  Nearly always, Cesar shows that the problem lies in the owner's behavior, not the dog's. The dog is behaving the way you would expect a dog to behave given the environment and the stimuli. When the owner changes his or her behavior, the dog's behavior changes accordingly.

I regularly speak with companies who think they have a people problem when turnover is high, productivity is low or performance is poor. Once I become familiar with the company, I often find that they don't have an employee problem, they have a management problem and their employees are behaving in predictable ways, given the system of rewards, punishment and feedback that are present in the culture.

I know that comparing humans to canines is probably not the most popular metaphor, but there are similarities. The new hire who was so aggressively recruited frequently finds him or herself like the cute puppy everyone wanted, but grew into the dog no one wants to feed or walk. 

Company leaders often ask, "why can't we find good people?" But they are asking the wrong question. They should be asking, "why don't people who looked like good prospects during the interview process perform well once they get into our organization?" 

These managers almost always have a good excuse as to why those 2 or 10 people didn't work out.  "They just weren't a good fit" or "They oversold their abilities" are popular sayings.  But the best managers are wise enough to realize that if they have a pattern of hiring people who were successful in other organizations but fail in theirs, it might be "us."

An organization that asks the right questions, measures employee engagement and satisfaction, and makes smart, timely adjustments to its management and performance management culture, can create and sustain an environment where employees are voluntarily contributing at a high level. But that's a lot harder than behaving the way bad dog owners do - relying on punishment as the primary motivator and/or withholding feedback altogether.