Business Lessons From the Barnyard

Very few management books are set in barnyards. Yet there's a lot that executives can learn from a confused, but enthusiastic, pig. Come to think of it, the journey of a dissatisfied scarecrow eerily resembles the dreary career paths of too many dedicated employees. And one tractor-driving mouse, with his wildly inflated sense of personal ability, illustrates alarming possibilities that most business leaders have never dreamed of -- to their companies' detriment.

Ordinarily, barnyard animals and scarecrows don't provide lessons in employee engagement, increased profitability, and organizational stability. But these aren't ordinary creatures. They're "employees" of Goode Farm -- and the brainchildren of authors Kenneth A. Tucker, a seminar leader and managing consultant for The Gallup Organization, and Vandana Allman, Gallup's global practice leader for talent-based hiring.

Tucker and Allman's book, Animals, Inc.: A Business Parable for the 21^st Century (Warner Books, 2004), is the story of a farmer-less farm and the animals that must learn to run it productively to save their skins (literally). The animals on the farm make every mistake in the book, if you will: They adopt business strategies that are sure to fail; put the right workers in the wrong jobs; and implement management by fear, flattery, and fiat. Finally, they realize that the way to inspire the greatest productivity is to make the most of employees' talents.

Though the book is a funny parable, it's also a serious and timely look at the way business works -- or more to the point, doesn't work. The following interview with the authors sheds some light on why Tucker and Allman chose the rare route of fiction in management-lit; why moving employees up the corporate ladder, rung-by-rung, hurts companies; and the benefit to business of giving low-prestige roles real honor.

GMJ: If you look at the list of bestselling business books, you'll find most are nonfiction -- yet your book isn't. Why the departure into fiction?

Allman: Even as adults, we still learn through stories. We wanted people to be able to pick up the book and really identify with a character, a personality. We wanted them to say, "Oh, I've been Scarecrow," whose job nobody cares about, or Mo, the chief executive animal, who's sitting there at three in the morning wondering what great decision to make on behalf of the business. We wanted people to have a story that they could truly connect with.

GMJ: You take a scathing -- but humorous -- view of just about every management strategy in the world. I mean, Mo, the chief executive, turns for guidance to a book called Hell on Earth: The Leadership Secrets of Satan. What were you getting at?

Tucker: Well, you know, many employees and managers are working in organizations that feel like hell on earth. Maybe it's hell because the manager has been promoted to a position that he or she has no talent for -- because employees have been horribly miscast. So yes, the book is a call to business to identify who has the talent to manage people and who has the talent to play particular roles within an organization.

Allman: We also meant the book to be poignant. It's poignant because the story addresses the reality of the world in which we live and work. There are people who get up every morning and dread going to work. This profoundly affects organizations, economies, even nations. But what if those people got up every morning eager to discover what the day holds? Wouldn't that have an incredible domino effect? We're trying to inspire that.

GMJ: So why animals?

Allman: Because animals naturally gravitate to what they do best. Human beings get a little lost. Why don't we gravitate to what we do best and make that a part of our lives? Animals provide us with an easy way to make an analogy that suggests that as human beings, we too have some gravitational pull toward what we do best. We've found that decades of Gallup management data and research essentially tell the story of Animals, Inc.

Tucker: Another thing -- animals aren't dangerous or threatening, just revealing. And animals really do lend themselves to memorable characters. You can build very funny characters using animals without losing the truth to the humor.

GMJ: Humor isn't a common theme in management books. What can funny writing deliver that dry writing can't?

Tucker: There are two ways, I believe, to teach people effectively: One is with pain, and the other is with pleasure. Animals, Inc. offers a happy mixture of both. People will laugh, and sometimes even as they laugh, they may find themselves also saying ouch to the stuff that's painfully familiar.

Allman: We hope the humor leaves readers wanting more. You keep reading because the story draws you in, and you want to know how it ends. You want to know if Scarecrow eventually achieves some level of honor on the farm; you want to know if Mo figures out the right thing to do.

GMJ: Speaking of Scarecrow, he's such a sympathetic character. Nobody listens to him, he's never allowed to do what he wants to do -- he doesn't even know what he wants to do. Whom does he symbolize?

Allman: He symbolizes employees who are always on time, always go the extra mile, are always dependable, and consistently do what they do best -- but who don't get a whole lot of honor or prestige at work. That's exactly where Scarecrow was until the crow came along and whispered that he should do something more prestigious. That crow whispering represents the human need for prestige, honor, and recognition.

Tucker: Scarecrow symbolizes everyone who feels like nobody is listening and that they don't matter much. And that's true for all of us at some time. The other thing Scarecrow's character evokes is that sometime in your life, you're going to find yourself thinking that your job is not the best job, and you'll want to move on. Sometimes people leave jobs for all the wrong reasons. It's bad for people, and it's bad for organizations, too.

Allman: Right. There are many positions in an organization that are crucial to its success. But if the people who hold those roles don't receive enough recognition or feel valued, then they'll be discontented; they may leave the job or the company altogether. Then that company has two strikes against it. The company may have lost its best contributor in one role, and he may not be the best fit in his new role. Those are painful truths in most hierarchical organizations -- to gain honor, employees must move up the ladder, rung by rung. And unfortunately, they eventually reach a level of incompetence.

Tucker: Our job is to help people recognize the talents they possess and how they can maximize those talents. Sometimes a person just needs to tweak the particular role she's in to fit her talents; she doesn't need to completely change her job or career. So in Scarecrow's instance, he shouldn't have stopped being a scarecrow in the field. Instead, what he needed to do was become an expert in his field -- literally, in this case. So he changed his role within his field, like a nurse who changes from nurse practitioner to nurse manager. And, you know, I love that about the characters in the book. The characters are designed to evoke different parts of us -- different experiences and different relationships.

GMJ: Why did you write this book now?

Tucker: The message is timely in a competitive marketplace -- but also timeless. We wanted to help more people understand the power of their unique talents. We wanted them to say, "I can become more passionate about my work, and more successful, by being who I am."

Allman: We're hoping that people will get up and look in the mirror every morning and say, "This is who I really am -- this is how I'm going to impact my world today."

-- Interviewed by Jennifer Robison