🔒How to cure a zombie-like business culture

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“The Zombie Business Cure — How to Refocus Your Company's Identity for More Authentic Communication” by Julie C. Lellis and Melissa Eggleston (Career Press, $16.99).

Business-Zombie (n.) — A worker who accepts the status quo because of fear and/or lack of conviction or common sense. At work, he/she hides behind procedures and processes; there's little respect shown for colleagues, and even less for customers. Challenges, and changes in the status quo, trigger anger. At the end of each “it is what it is” workday, the zombie moans and gets on with a shallow existence.

With that definition in mind, we need only to look at recent headline-making “walking dead” examples at United Airlines (it apparently learning nothing from the “United broke my guitar” video of a few years back) and American Airlines for confirmation. While these incidents captured the attention of millions, there are customer-service missteps that we've all experienced that left us with the feeling that the companies involved were brain dead.

The authors are spot-on with their belief that business zombies exist because of the lack of internal and external communication about corporate identity, values and expectations, all of which shape an organization's culture. That culture revolves around “how members of the organization relate to one another. Their interactions and behaviors demonstrate the values they share.” Simply put: Show me a walking-dead culture and I'll show you a company that cares more about “following the rules” than building and maintaining customer (internal and external) relationships.

Identity is both fixed and fluid. Fixed in the sense that values don't change; fluid because the company always looks for “upgrades” (i.e. how to become better). In human-based, rather than walking-dead organizations, employees and other stakeholders are engaged in up-down-sideways communication that produces questions that don't go unanswered and ideas that are evaluated. The openness of communication creates continuous improvement as the firm sees change as a way to upgrade.

The authors provide numerous examples of small and large human and zombie businesses to drive home their points.

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“The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States” by Benjamin C. Waterhouse (Simon & Schuster, $28).

The history of business in the U.S. forms the framework for American demography, outlook and politics. The growth of the country from a colonial startup to a global powerhouse shows that business was its engine.

I recommend reading chapter 4, “The Politics of Business in the Early Republic,” first because it serves as the foundation of events that follow into modern times. The debate on the “business” of the nation started under George Washington's administration.

On one side stood the Jeffersonian Republicans, who believed that farmers represented a bulwark against governmental tyranny. Their argument was simple: When people took care of their needs and those of others within their individual states, the role of the central government was limited to those powers granted under the Constitution. They were afraid that a system of banking and manufacturing would concentrate economic power in the wealthy few. Sound familiar?

On the other side were Alexander Hamilton's Federalists. In an address to Congress in 1791, Hamilton stated: “It is in the interest of nations to diversify the industrious pursuits of the individuals who compose them.” The Federalists wanted a strong central banking system and protective tariffs to bolster domestic manufacturing while promoting agricultural exports through free trade. Sound familiar?

Over subsequent Federalist and Jeffersonian administrations, the lines between their principles blurred as the nation expanded and needed roads and canals, and faced security issues. Waterhouse's history shows that the roles of business and government are intertwined.

Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.