As loyal customers stood in a shocked-like silence in a long checkout line at our local Borders Bookstore, the cashier told person after person, “We have not been told when our last day will be.” A store typically filled with employees that used to get excited when asked about a book or an author was now filled with employees that were not open to chatting with customers that couldn’t look them in the eyes.
Most of those people standing in line were witnessing the demise of a workplace culture destroyed by the bankruptcy of a multi-million dollar corporation. That same company has now sold off a number of stores to a new owner which will create another type of workplace culture shift. The workplace culture at Apple is experiencing a similar shock through different circumstances, the resignation of their longtime leader, Steve Jobs.
Borders Books
Most of the Borders Bookstores across the U.S. will be closing their doors for good in just a few weeks. Fourteen of those stores have reportedly (Publishers Weekly (PW), Books-A-Million At the Crossroads, August 29, 2011) been purchased by another retailer, Books-A-Million (BAM).
It is yet to be reported whether the new owners will retain the employees at those Borders Bookstores. If the employees stay with the new company, they will have to face a different book selling culture than that of Borders because the product and customer bases are different at BAM.
According to the PW report, BAM’s product line is predominately religious books and the company’s customers are “generally less affluent than those who shop at its competitors and have less education.” Borders sold books off of well-known bestseller lists including those in fiction, romance, science fiction and mystery among others.
Apple Computer’s Culture
As reported by Newsweek (Exit the King, Alan Deutschman, September 5th, 2011), “Even as an ailing Steve Jobs announced to the world last week that “unfortunately, that day has come” for him to step down as chief executive officer of Apple, his timing was-yet again-impeccable.” Jobs has been called a genius, a visionary, a brilliant promoter and finally, has been referred to as one of the most highly respected business men of our time.
As Jobs gained all of those accolades and his product lines became some of the most life-changing technology in the world, the workplace culture at Apple had no choice but to become a subset of Jobs’ leadership. Now, with his leaving the company and a new CEO will be stepping up to the plate, consumers and analyst are asking what will happen at Apple. And, if the outside world is wondering at its future, what must the employees be asking?
Expert Advice on Leading Change
Circumstances at both of these high-profile companies have created a terrific shift in the workplace culture. How will the new leaders manage such change? Oddly enough, there are slew of change management books (that could have been purchased at Borders) available offering an even bigger slew of solutions.
One of the bestselling change books of the recent past is the Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. (G.P Putnam’s Books, 1998). It explores anticipating change, monitoring change, adopting to change quickly and ultimately enjoying change. The bottom line message of the book is if you don’t adapt to change, you can stay stymied in one place and ultimately lose your cheese and not survive or you can accept change and find new and better cheese.
Another bestselling author, Daniel Goleman co-authored Primal Leadership Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Harvard Business School Press, 2002) with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. These authors tell readers that regardless of the situation, good leaders move teams and people to action through “driving emotions in the right direction, nothing they do will work as well as it could or should.”
Goleman and his co-authors suggest taking the emotions of those involved with the change into consideration and then lead appropriately. In the case of both situations at Borders and Apple, the employees have to be wrought with many emotions including fear and confusion. Hopefully the new leadership for both sets of employees will take such emotions into their plans to implement this round of unexpected and sudden change.
