I also said that ‘we tried a lot of stuff at RedBalloon, we got lot’s wrong, but other things worked’ so really what I was sharing was the theory of what we did, after we did it. We did not start with a white board and design and engagement program, it just evolved over time, knowing that if we always think of employees as customers something will happen.

I got a great question after my presentation.. ‘well that is alright for you – with your 50+ employees but what about massive organizations?’ Of course I mentioned the Zappo’s, Apple and Google examples of strong vision and leadership. The question remains where are the case in an Australian large businesses? (Dimension Data & Express Data were fellow Hewitt Best Employers for 2009.)

The other observation is that we built RedBalloon from the ground up always believing in our people – so it is just 'the way we do things around here', we didn’t try to change. We are also a professional, mostly young, un-unionised workforce.

Dexter 'old dog' on duty at RedBalloon - Mic's mate

So let me digress for a moment. At Redballoon we have used TNT as our courier company for many years, every day at the same time, the same courier Mic, cheerfully arrives at our office and picks up the parcels, having a little hello to everyone, patting Dexter the dog. And off he goes with a skip in his step. Quite the jolly fellow. I have never really thought about this, but he represents TNT so well. I just thought we had a ‘good one.’ And he has been with us for years.

So back to the Marcus Evans event. The speaker after me was Susan Davies, Director – HR, Administration & Customer Service, TNT Express. Unlike all the other presentation’s, which are full of power point and lots of theory, Susan let her people tell the story of engagement. She had taken video of people out in the field, in the depots, and asked them about what engagement meant to them.

This is a very impressive story, because when she arrived to the role, the company had just announced a loss of $79million. She (and the other leaders) believed that only through employees could they turn this number around. She said 'we simply got out of our offices, went to the depots around the country and got to know our people. We listened to what was important to them… we learned that instead of providing them with fruit boxes as part of a well being program, what they really wanted was pies and coke. It was all about being in their world.'

TNT employs 1000s of people in Australia and has a 87% employee engagement score. Not only that, in just one year they turned the business around to a $10million profit. She said ‘We are all in this together.’  Proving that employee engagement is a profitable pursuit.

The TNT story is not an internet start up on a crusade or an IT business, it is an old established business, with a ‘blue collar’ unionised workforce, which reinforces the idea that ‘as the leadership team goes – so goes the rest of the organization.’

Congratulations to Susan and her team… it was refreshing and a delight to hear the story. And I know from first hand experience – knowing Mic – that it was absolutely authentic.

When I commenced working for Ansett Airlines, I requested a PC, my boss was curious to know why I needed such a thing (I had worked for IBM in New York – so thought that a PC was a standard business tool of the time). I wanted a PC so I could be self-sufficient typing up the ‘fabulous’ marketing plans, I was going to write. My manager advised me that Ansett had a word processing department – all I had to do, was pick up the phone dial a certain extension, dictate what I wanted, I would then have the typed document returned to my desk in the next day or two, I would make corrections, it would then go back and forth for a few days before it was finally finished and you could send it. It took about 4-5 days to produce a piece of correspondence (even an internal memo). Younger audience members laugh thinking, they can answer an email in seconds, any where anytime on hand held devices.

So it does beg the question what will the world look like in just another 10 years. And how do we ensure we have the right talents and skills to go along with it. I have teenage children and I know that the jobs they are likely to have, have not been invented yet.

Back last century when I was in the final term of my university degree… my father said that he would like me to do a secretarial course… 'just in case things don’t work out in my marketing career. You could always get a job as a secretary’ he said. So I dutifuly went off in the term break from Uni to learn to touch type.

Whether my father's reasoning was sound (something to fall back on) or not, learning to touch type at 90 words a minute has been one of my greatest productivity tools over the last 25 years. (so thanks Dad)

So really the more exposure we have to more things, the better equipped we will be to exploit new technologies and ideas. (Can you believe in the year 2000 I said to myself I was too old to learn about the internet… ) we need to keep our minds wide open, and learn as much as we can along the way. The new technologies that we are embracing are not the destination, but are part of the journey... and I for one don't want to miss out on any of the ride.

I’m in Auckland visiting clients today with our Kiwi Manager, Laurel, and I met one of the finalists in the Unlimited / JRA Best places to work awards for 2009, Kerry from PAKnSAVE Henderson. (PAKnSAVE is a discount supermarket franchise group – Henderson is the suburb) – with more than 150 staff he was pretty pleased to be named as a finalist; up there with the big global brands, that you’d expect to see at these awards.

We asked him what’s the key… he outlined that he was making a considerable investment in training, that people liked to hang out together, and they had done a fair bit of work on their ‘values’, that is, what they stand for as a business in the community. He also talked about what he does to recognize exemplary contribution from his team.

Laurel spoke of some of the fun things that Matt had put in the 52 ideas piece - #3 'have the boss give up his car space'. Kerry chuckled and said one of his fellow managers had done that and even extended to recognition to include not just the car space for the week, but the bosses BMW 740 to go with it.

The winner was a storeman, who starts work every morning at 4.am…. So as the storeman was proudly driving to work one day in the BMW (dressed in his work attire of stubbies and singlet, ‘looking pretty rough’) the police pulled him over asking to explain who owned the car. The storeman announced it was his bosses and he had been given the use of it for a week because he was the employee of the month… the Police didn’t believe him. So the police made the appropriate calls (getting the boss out of bed) to verify that he was actually telling the truth and the car was not stolen…

I don’t know what the storeman thought of being pulled over, but he sure has told everyone about it… the experience and the story created, means this story has become part of the ‘folk law’ in that business. And that business is now ‘known’ as one that recognizes it’s people.

It says somewhere in the bible that a ‘good wife’ will debate and challenge her husband so he can see what he cannot see. I think this is the basis of all partnerships or even leadership teams. If we keep playing it safe, living in our comfort zone then how can we ever possibly create something bigger than ourselves?

There are more people in the RedBalloon team than it once was, and I don’t necessarily have the same moment-by-moment contact with each individual that I used to. As a result I rely heavily on the team leaders around me to deliver on the vision, the passion and the commitment to our people.

Having differences of opinion, viewing the world differently, holding the mirror up so we can see how we are really performing is all healthy. When there is fundamental respect for each other, then challenges are seen as growth opportunities.

Why this sudden outburst, to announce that conflict can be constructive? RedBalloon is coming into planning for the next financial year, resources need to be allocated and there are always differences of opinions. As long as the process is respectful of each individuals opinions then even after a ‘full on’ conflict – we can all still come back to a place of alignment and harmony.

Being an employer of choice is challenging, steadfastly committed to keeping everyone aligned – even if it takes lot’s of energy and many different points of view. It does mean never giving up and knowing that near enough is good enough, just to appease someone (or be nice…) it is not fair to the rest of the team to leave a debate unchallenged.

The reality is that at the moment the number one thing on my agenda is that I need to develop brand new content, never heard before, that will leave the audience inspired at the TEDx conference Sydney . And I seem to have a creativity block elsewhere until I get it done… hence I now have to blog about it.

I’ve been briefed to deliver an original thought, concept or idea that will leave the audience touched, moved and inspired. The bar is set very high, and as a result I am challenged (there is no winging it – I only have 18 minutes). I speak all the time, it is what I love to do. I share what I have learned on my entrepreneurial journey, what I’ve learned about both customer and employee engagement, but this needs to be new.

So I began to explore some ideas. I’ve been told that the reason I resonate with audiences is because of my passion and belief in what I am speaking about. You can never fake it as a speaker: authenticity, vulnerability and being able to ‘tell one on yourself’ delivers the value to those listening.

I presented some of my TEDx content ideas to the team. They responded “yes – women on boards is a very topical subject which you are passionate about – sounds fine” (Part of the brief is that you cannot speak about your business).

I caught up with Verne Harnish last week when he was in town for the growth summit. So I shared my dilemma with him. He listened politely and said ‘yes that is an interesting issue – but it wont be viral, it’s not what is driving your existence, it’s not what makes you get up every morning. Think about why you are so passionate about what you do every day… that is the key… and please don’t be boring.’ (Everyone needs a mentor who will tell you how it is)

I know what drives me, I know why I do what I do…. I know that I will keep going at the pace I go until finally I know that gifting in Australia is changed forever.

Seth Goden spoke about his book at TED, as did Malcom Gladwell. So whilst I will not be speaking on RedBalloon – (can’t be seen to be promoting) I will be talking about why I have this urgent, unfulfilled need to finish the job I started nearly ten years ago… simply by making someone’s day.

Running from one thing to the next, never having time to be creative or think - means that we are always being stretched to peak performance. But no one plays at peak 16 hours a day every day.

Apparently the average person working in an office gets interrupted every 4 minutes (80-100 times a day) yet it takes 25 minutes to really focus on a task. Does that mean we are actually going backwards or that we are not giving our undivided attention to the task at hand?

85% of Australians feel that life is getting more and more hectic. All these labor saving gadgets actually just mean we do more.

Andrew had some great thoughts about how to reduce this problem:

• break the email addiction
• learn to have fleeting meetings
• create energy management
• master mindfulness
• forced isolation

Now you might want to read his book ‘Flip the Switch’ to discover what he means by all of these. But I was particularly interested in the notion that I have a stimulus response addiction to email (a bit like people who play the pokies for days/nights on end seeking instant gratification from the push of a button) Alarming to compare it...

Here are his seven email ideas...

1. Turn off email pop up alerts (and sound)
2. Schedule times that you check it (not morning - start the day on what you want to work on not responding to others)
3. Give up email tennis (talk instead)
4. Unsubscribe to anything you don’t read or want to get.
5. Never write a thesis (it is a short message medium)
6. Refrain from using BCC
7. Get a great spam filter

He suggests he can save an hour a day (which is a lot of time in a week, month or year). I have taken on 6 of his suggestions.... but I still find myself drawn to go back... Sometimes I'm the initiator of the 'need' to email or I worry that there might be an urgent missive that I must attend to. I do find that I am much quicker at dealing with all the emails at once, you don’t dwell on them so much. The fact that I even feel this means that I know that it is an addiction.

It took me a week to go cold turkey and give up coffee - it might be a bit longer with this one.

Thanks Andrew for your insights last week at the Talent2 conference.