Book Report: Widgets By Rodd Wagner
In the book that was read called Widgets by Rodd Wagner we find that the main issue is commitment in today's workplace and how he talked about companies don't always do a good job of making it known. Being committed can be a tough thing to do, but we must realize that making a commitment should meaning something to us and make us want to keep whatever commitment that we make. The definition of commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, or activity. Making a commitment involves dedicating yourself to something, like a person or a cause. Before we make a commitment, we should think carefully because a commitment obligates us to do something and some commitments are large, like marriage or having a family. In business the commitments we make don’t just involve small things either, they can lead to commitments of new jobs, promotions, raises or even making the move to take an overtime shift to help the company. Commitments should never be taken lightly and in Widgets Rodd Wagner does a phenomenal job of explaining twelve ways that we will look at on how to communicate successfully within the workplace and get the best out of everyone within the company.
The book states one very important key that we will discuss in the intro and it states that “It is difficult to have the right relationship between a company and its people when the corporate function responsible for doing so goes by a euphemism. You might as well call them widgets, flesh-and-blood widgets.” When this was looked into and comprehended we can see that Wagner says it is difficult to have a relationship of commitment throughout a company itself, but it is about getting that relationship at its best to better the company as a whole being most important. Having relationships throughout the company need to be healthy and it starts with communication. Let’s take marriage for instance, and imagine never talking to the spouse we marry and constantly going and doing without any communication.
That marriage is more than likely never going to work because communication is vital in marriage just as it was in the bible as Jesus is said to have married the church. Jesus communicated to the people within the church as well as his disciples to make sure they knew how to run the church and run it to reach the lost and grow the kingdom of God. We should treat work the same way obviously not comparing it to Jesus and the Church, but we should be committed to whatever work we do is and strive to be at the best ability possible in it to build the kingdom of God. Before we dig into the twelve rules we must realize that Wagner wrote this book to bring out the best for companies to build off and learn how to better communicate and because of this book it has gave a new perspective to how communication should be viewed and gone after.
One of the most important things Wagner wants business owners and people within the business to realize “Your people are not the greatest asset. They’re not yours, and they’re not assets, you don’t own your people. Many of them don’t trust you. Some don’t like you. Too many won’t stick it out with you. And the ones you need most have the credentials to walk out fastest if you treat them poorly.” This is one of the most spot on statements we can see that deal with how we treat employees and those around us we work with. Wagner gives the reader the question of are we treating employees and coworkers the right way? Or are we taking full advantage and making those we work with have distrust and a desire to walk away from the job to find something better?
That is the question to be answered in this report and how we can better the company we have or work for simply by treating the ones we work with the right way and in a Godly way as we are called to do. The twelve rules can be summed up from the books and quotes from each to see the full effect of how to better communication. The first rule Wagner discusses is to get inside the heads of the employees and the book says “From the employee’s perspective, being treated as a unique individual and showered with a lot of attention is baked into the employment deal.” Wagner wants us to get inside the head of the employees to understand them and learn the buttons to push to motivate and get the best out of them while making them feel wanted and important within the workplace.
The second rule is to train the employees to be fearless and Widgets tells us “The key to the new employer-employee compact…is that although it’s not based on loyalty, it’s not purely transactional either. It’s an alliance between an organization and an individual that’s aimed at helping both succeed.” Making employees fearless means they are ready to go into battle with their employer as well as coworkers. Having a fearless mindset makes people strive to do things out of the ordinary to better the company itself because a family and team atmosphere is created within. Third rule has to deal with making money not an issues by paying employees the right way for what they do and giving incentives to earn more with harder work and better understanding of how to do new things. Wagner states “In the future, companies will have to keep pay from being an issue by making it fair.” Wagner makes it clear that if pay is an issue and we treat employees the wrong way doesn’t mean other companies will do the same.
The fourth rule Wagner talks on is to help employees thrive and he states “If human life is indeed sacred, if we care about people and not just polar bears and endangered species, then we need to ‘score’ governmental and company decisions not just by their monetary effects, but also on their implications for people.” Wagner is saying we need to help the employees be at their best and that means not just at work, but at home and in life’s itself to prepare them the right way into how to be successful in everyday life.
Rule number five is simple Wagner wants us to be cool and says “People who work for what they consider cool companies and cool leaders and cool managers and with whom they consider cool coworkers are substantially more motivated to stay and to work harder for the company.” Being cool means to be cool and stay involved the right way to the people around in the workplace and it starts by not being angry, just relax and know how to inspire and communicate to employees to keep the morale high and get the best out of them each day.
Wagner talks about the sixth rule and how we need to be boldly transparent within the company to give employees effective communication of trust. Wagner says “It’s never been more important to run a company so that there’s nothing to hide. The signals are clear: it’s now time to share.” We shouldn’t hide anything from employees and when problems come up within the company the company itself should be notified so employees can trust and know that everything will be okay and be able to be worked out.
Next, the seventh rule Wagner tells us not to kill the meaning when he says “Ultimately, only the leaders and managers for who the organization’s purpose has great personal significance are in a position to do anything to build onto the meaning their employees take from their work.” Wagner says we should leave an impact on the employees that work for us that they can take throughout life and this should be something we as leaders strive for because making an impact on someone’s life is the best thing we as Christians can do.
The eighth rule is one of the most important rules discussed and that is to see the future of the employees within the workplace and Wagner makes a very good point in the book while saying “An organization needs to see the potential in its people as much as it sees the potential in the firm itself. Its leaders and managers need to be deliberate in developing their employees and giving them the kinds of credentials that will allow them to build their futures somewhere, even if it’s somewhere else.” Seeing the future of the employees that work for us can speak on the level of selflessness or selfishness we have. It is important as a leader and especially as a boss to be selfless and let the employees we employ know that their future means something to us and regardless if that future is with the company we have or a completely different one that they know we want what’s best to make them happy.
The ninth rule discussed by Wagner is how to magnify the success of employees we employ to appreciate the good work and let employees know what they can do better. Wagner states “A highly attentive manager knowing what kinds of recognition and what type of correction will be the most effective is the only means to ensure the highest levels of motivation.” We must always be attentive to employees to say good job, or we can do better here and show the employees exactly what they do good and what needs work to ear promotions and better not only the company, but themselves as well.
Wagner discusses the tenth rule by telling us to unite the employees and keep them together as a whole and grow them into a family by saying “Uniting a group of employees is a matter of creating the conditions under which collaboration naturally develops and increases.” When a group comes together it is nearly unstoppable and making sure the company we own sticks together and communicates effectively it becomes more than a company it becomes a way of life and molds it into a family and team.
The eleventh rule Wagner talks about is letting the employees lead and that builds trust within a company. Wagner and his team says “There is a large body of research on how important it is for employees to have a say in how their work is done.”When we limit employee’s voices we hurt their trust and morale itself within the company because employees feel as if they don’t mean as much within the company. Employees deserve to be heard and be able to lead in their own unique ways just as we as employers lead. If we shun leadership in the workplace employees will be upset and likely leave because they feel as if they are in a dictatorship instead of a democracy.
Rule number twelve that Wagner talks about is taking it to extremes with our employees and he says that “First, evidence is clear an employee will help the company pursue its big dreams if his leaders and managers have so invested in his experience at the firm that they triggered his natural reflex of reciprocity. The second reason why people push themselves to extremes is for their own personal sense of accomplishment.” Wagner tells us to give big incentives to employees and let them know that the work they do can lead to better pay and promotions which can in the end help both employee development and company growth.
Wagner and his team did a fantastic job researching these twelve steps and developing a book to successfully show how to communicate and better operate a business for everyone involved within the company. They also found two goals for companies to pursue to better communication in the workplace as well as grow the company as a whole. The first goal is to get a sense of where the employees fall on the commitment spectrum. The three major problems that came up because of that were employees saying they were demoralized when their employers treat them like “Widgets” which is how Wagner got the idea for the title name of the book. When looking into what a widget actually is, it was discovered that it is a small gadget or mechanical device, especially one whose name is unknown or unspecified. If we treat employees like that they have every reason to be upset because it should never be that way and we should be ashamed if we do in fact ever treat an employee like that.
Another problem that came up was employees saying their companies were poorly ran and Wagner was inspired by this because he successfully proposed twelve ways to eliminate a company being poorly ran by teaching employers how to communicate better and make their company as a whole better. They had too successful results of the surveys they conducted and one was people being content with their company and while that’s not a bad thing leadership should still be encouraged to get more than content out of their employees and inspire them better to get the best for them as well as the company. Another percentage of employees said employers do a good job of treating them like human beings instead of assets by encouraging them the right way. That is all we can do has employers is strive to encourage employees to be at their best and keep morale within the company high and inspire people to make the company a family and a home away from home.
The second goal Wagner and his team wanted to reach was to identify new rules for increasing loyalty in the workplace and that is described within his twelve step process on how to better communicate and not treat employees as widgets. When we see employees we shouldn’t just seem them as employees we need to look at them as family and treat them the same way. Inspiring a family atmosphere in the workplace allows more and more positivity which leads to communication and successful communication is key. If we take training techniques used by Wagner and then find ways of how Jesus trained his disciples and use both ways to reach a goal the companies we run can be at the top for as long as we live. Jesus came with the purpose of reclaiming the world with the Gospel, so in this case Jesus didn’t need technology to train his disciples. Jesus had a plan that was simple and from God that showed him his disciples and take those twelve ordinary men and give them three years of training through association with Jesus. By doing this the disciples where able to observe and obey the teachings of Jesus as well as be able to send them out equipped with the Word, prayer and the Holy Spirit to reproduce disciples. That is the Lord's program, and it is reaching the world. Jesus didn’t go pick the rich and the smartest around he picked twelve disciples with different backgrounds to fulfill the plan God had and trained them the right way to be successful. We should all believe as Christians today need to hire people with different backgrounds and develop them into being the best and showing them the proper way to run and work in the company we provide. The most important thing we can do is show the love of Jesus and train our employees as well to seek God while even at work.
While applying Wagner’s twelve rules and adding Jesus and his teachings to be the forefront of how to run a business the foundation we create can leave a mark that can last as long as the company is around. We have a purpose and that purpose is to spread positivity and inspire those around us in the workplace to be at their best at work as well as life in general, so that they know the company they work for is the best at keeping happiness and preparing for the future. So we are brought back to the main message of the book with two questions to answer are we treating employees and coworkers the right way? Or are we taking full advantage and making those we work with have distrust and a desire to walk away from the job to find something better?
Let’s think on the question one last time and evaluate if we truly treat employees and coworkers the right way. God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, so that should be a thought process on how to successfully treat those we work with the right way and strive to bring the best out in them in all we do as well as show them we care about their future and life outside of work because when it is said and done work is temporary, but the life God gives us shouldn’t be treated lightly we should give each day 110 percent. The second question we have to ask is do we cause employees to not trust the things we do and feel as if they are widgets to us?
We need to let employees know that they have a purpose within the company as well as life itself and finding that purpose is the most important thing in life because it means we are focused in on God. Being focused in on God can let the company know that trust is never an issue and that the foundation the company is built on can’t be broken down because the foundation with God is unbreakable and can’t be torn down. Once the employees we employ realize that the company we run is on this level they can see the care we have about their future as well as the company actually being a family and not just a job that is meaningless.
