Cross Training
I was watching an episode of Undercover Boss this morning and it started to make me think that this show is onto to something. The premise of the show is that the head of a large company puts on a disguise and works various jobs at the company. During his undercover operation, the boss meets and talks to people who do not know who he is. The humorous part of the show is that usually the boss is unable to perform the tasks required and in normal conditions he would be fired for incompetence. What does happen is that the boss tends to garner an appreciation of the lives of his workers and an understanding of the impact of his decisions on the lives and work of his employees.
What made me start to think was that this concept of having employees work other people's job would be beneficial for all those involved. It is easy today for a sales person to complain that their sales are not being implemented fast enough. But in most cases, the sales person will have limited knowledge of what it takes to actually implement a sales. If the person had that kind of insight, the sales person could then appreciate the other people in his organization's work and in fact, structure deals for the clients with more realistic time lines than before.
It also works in reverse, I have seen many people outside of the sales function complain about clients and the sales people. Some people believe that the deals and sales just fall out of the sky and the sale person is just luck to be there to catch a deal. By trading places with a sales person, a programmer, for example, would have a better understanding on the pressures that the salesperson is under and what happens if a project is delayed or not implemented as expected.
In the old days, companies would cross train their employees to ensure that they had a full understanding of their jobs. They were building great organizations and employees. This is a long term view towards business. In the 1990's, companies emphasized the near term more and more and probably figured that in the long run, we will all be dead. The result of this short term view is more people are in silos than before. What we need to do is break down these silos through cross training.
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