Do You Treat Your Employees Like Dogs

Which would you rather have:  total compliance or selective disobedience? Seriously. If you are a leader, take a second and be honest with yourself. 

I’m not talking about breaking any moral codes or doing anything unethical. I’m talking about not following a policy (I think policies create more bad experiences than anything), a procedure, or a practice.

Leaders often say they want their employees to be fully engaged and act like owners. But as soon as the employee does something as preposterous as using their own judgment, the leader swoops in and intervenes.

This question reminds me of a short video I saw on an American Airlines flight many years ago about the Seeing Eye in Morristown, New Jersey. This story was used and made legendary in customer service training for many years after the story ran.

The Seeing Eye is a place where they train guide dogs to help the visually impaired. In the video, an interviewer asked a Seeing Eye dog trainer what type of characteristics they looked for in guide dogs. The trainer said, “There are two types of dogs that don’t make it here: dogs that are totally obedient and the dogs that are totally disobedient.”  The trainer elaborated, “The characteristics we look for in a guide dog are selective disobedience.” 

I still remember spilling my red wine and spitting my food into the passenger’s hair in front of me!

His answer was completely fascinating and totally appropriate to the arena of customer engagement and employee engagement. What a blinding flash of the obvious! 

When the interviewer asked for an explanation, the dog trainer simply said, “The first two types of dogs will get the master killed. The one who is totally disobedient is very obvious. It’s the one who is totally obedient that is interesting. Could you imagine the totally obedient dog standing on the corner while the traffic light is red, and his master says ‘Go!’ The dog looks down the street, sees an 18-wheeler coming down the road and thinks to himself, ‘This is really going to be a bummer.’” 

What they look for is a dog that does whatever the master says—unless it doesn’t make sense.

• How many times as organizations do we make our employees go through policies, procedures, or practices that don’t allow them to use their judgment, even when the policy or procedure doesn’t make sense? Answer: Too many! 

• Does your organization spend countless hours of energy recruiting, screening, hiring, training, and developing the best and brightest candidates available? Answer: Yes, of course you do! 

• Once the employees are there, don’t you think you can treat them at least as good as the Seeing Eye dog? Answer: Of course, you can. 

If you are honest with yourself, I bet you are either doing it too little or not enough!