UBUNTU

Dear All, today's lecture was about the word #UBUNTU which is a tribal south African word, used often by the blacks of south Africa, Nelson Mandela made the rest of the world know about it.


Ubuntu means team work, amongst other things

The author opened the scene by asking us this question: Who has less work this year than last year? Of course no one raised their hands.

Dr Bob Nelson, author of a book, 1001 ways to reward your employees, he says that 65% of the ideas in the book do need money if we want to apply them.


9% unemployment in USA
65% of this unemployment lack the skills needed for the economy
90% of organizations had recessionary cutbacks
Employees trust has declined
Decline in employee engagement
Employees change jobs, move to other placed.

The reason is the lack of Ubuntu!


What is Ubuntu: a person is a person through other people; None of us are an island; I am because we are! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYA1SHqKICA


All of us are connected to each other. See what we have more in common rather than what keeps us apart

Nelson Mandela, first to use ubuntu, we are all connected.

What do we have in common? We can be married, with children, having same hobbies, having pets, where we live could be the same, were we studied could be the same, our language could be the same,

So ubuntu is having common vision, shared experiences, inspiration, empathy, teamwork, recognition.


Common goals: All performance starts with clear goals and expectations.


The author showed a scene from Invectus the movie about Mandela, to prove the point.

Forgiveness liberate the Saul.
Don't hold any grudge

If I cannot change my circumstances, how can I get others to change? Nelson Mandela

Look in the mirror and ask yourself, what do I do to tell everybody how I feel about them.
Have a common vision in business.

He gave examples of what companies in USA do to implement the concepts of ubuntu

Zappos.com a company that delivers wow? Employees sing collectively


They say: We have shared experiences!

Disney world shut down twice a year and invite the employees and their familes to use the rides, the managers are the workers


Marriott hotels, same way, put pictures of where the staff went on holidays,


Mary Kay celebrate beauty of the staff


And many others

Mandela embraced rugby, as it was called the game of the whites, he was asked to abolish it but he didn’t as he didn’t want to do the whites what they did to the blacks.

How do we inspire ourselves to greatness when no one else will do?


Then the author talked about:

RICHARD Branson
You do not need to know how to fly an airplane to have an air line, you have to be good with people, get the best people, make sure they are properly motivated, and give them freedom to make good things and make mistakes,


Elements of ubuntu:

Empathy:
To walk in someone else's shoes , put yourself in someone's place to understand him/her better

Teamwork
To win, it's about the team, no team will win if every person want to show off.

Recognition
You get what you reward. Reward people, they feel happy, even if you give a banana or a silly thing, just give it.

None of us are an island and can do it ourselves, pass around the rewards.

Ask the staff, what is it that they want as a reward.

When you get serious about performance, you have to get serious about recognition.

To sustain teamwork, recogise it

Thi9nk of Five things that work well? Instead of five things that don't work well.

Write down five things of why you like to work with a person? A colleague or a boss, and pass the card around, so everyone know.



Summery
Companies need to have a Common vision
Companies need to Share experiences

Hope you like it, and if you like the book, its in the office library.