Doc Franchise Writings and Ramblings

I recently got onto a plane, settled in with my computer case at hand, my ipod Touch at the ready - my Bose headset set up and my computer in my pre-planned position to swipe it out of said aforementioned case.

Then came the flight attendant.

He looked at me, grinned and asked if I would "be so kind" to switch seats with a husband who was needed by his wife so the two of them could keep their baby from exploding onto the passengers in and around where she was currently seated. Now, here I am. I am comfortable. I have perfected my environment. And this clown disrupts my mental zen. Further it will require some deliberate focus and nurturing to get me back on track once I have settled into my new digs.

This of course is a minor thing isn't it?

Imagine that same seat-swapping scenario occurring during a period of severe weather turbulence. Not only would you be anxious and feeling unstable in your current seat, you now have to collect yourself, mobilize without falling on your pa-toot with such concern related to spilling all over the passengers along the way and then get re-oriented in the new situation.

Organizationally change is usually difficult. It typically comes in the midst of failure and chaos. Change amidst instability is the worst. Yet many employees are feeling lost, anxious, hurt and confused lately as their companies reorganize, reallocate resources, cut costs and downsize staff.All the while, in the bigger picture, the economy searches for stabilization.

Franchisee's, are typically once-bitten victims of this kind of turmoil. Actually, many of them may have been bitten several times by downsizing or more generally, by being deeply and personally affected by change that caught them off guard in their previous careers.

It is then no wonder, now, at a time when they seem to have more control as business owners (often a significant reason they became business owners in the first place) when put into similar transitional scenarios in their franchise business, they resist strongly. They dig their heels in, shut their ears and just refuse change.

My experience also tells me that franchise organization must be better at forecasting and predicting change within the company and in the greater market than their corporate counterparts in business. This higher standard of expertise is something the franchisee, though it may be unspoken, is buying when he invests that fee into the franchise.

Franchises need to make a core competency out of looking at their current situation, considering options and executing on those well in advance of the changes needed. Franchise organizations, compared to companies that operate multi-unit/multi-regionally have many "owners." They have many decision makers and to get this distributed leadership onboard takes a significant communications effort. That effort must start sooner and create an atmosphere of listening, learning, hearing, training and teaching.

While we are at it, think of communication as the second core competency that every franchise desiring success must have or acquire. Period! Franchises must be communications experts.

If it typically is a 6-month ramp up time to changes required for a corporation then a franchise needs double that time. This time should be allowed for contemplation and preparation before transition can be deeply understood and welcomed. Occasionally changes are made under emergency circumstances. If this is the case, just know that success and acceptance is not likely to be 100% or even 75%. You will have to manage to another lower level of acceptance (and should you get better, because of your culture of trust then count it a blessing!)

To encourage employee buy-in, a executive I met recently shared how her company applied the "head, heart, hands" concept as an organizational imperative as they underwent some restructuring. I believe this kind of methodology is even more significantly exercised within a franchise since the cultures of franchises are so very personal (and the more personal the better in my estimation.)

Here's how it works:

Knowing that staff would find any change unsettling, the company's leadership created a unified plan to fully communicate and engage their teams before taking any action. Explaining all the logical and rational reasons for the change would enable staff to begin intellectually processing the information (head); acknowledging how the change would make employees feel before, during and after implementation would assuage their fear (heart); and outlining the tactical plan and ensuing goals would satisfy their need for action (hands).

Franchisers, remember, you have a very sensitive leadership team. They are your franchisees. They come in all shapes and sizes. They are however acutely concerned with change. Keep them abreast of unique opportunities or concerns in their area of concern (which includes the home office by the way.) Change, in our current climate may be inevitable but it does not have to be excruciatingly painful. Your leadership will make all the difference.

John is a 26-year professional in the franchise industry. He has been a franchisee, a franchise executive and an advocate/consultant to the public and to dozens of franchise companies. He is the founder and managing partner of Wilson Associates and can be reached at docfranchise@gmail.com. or direct office 480.838.1641

This is a continuation of yesterdays article, "Franchisors, Here's a Criteria You Might Have Missed!"


Due to the tragic problem of ignorance and passivity in our world today, I've been extolling the benefits of reading. Yesterday, we talked about number one: reading sweeps the cobwebs away; it expands us. Today, I'll note three additional benefits.


2. Reading increases our power of concentration.

Through the discipline of reading, the mind is programmed to observe and absorb. It replaces the "Entertain Me" mentality with "Challenge Me." The eye of a reader is more observant, alert, probing and questioning.

After I left home for the last time I found myself in a house full of party animals. Since I lived with just my mom I had become comfortable with solitude and with solitude I found reading. One day, when the house we rented was uncharacteristically quiet I lay on my bed and began reading a book my sister had given me, In His Steps by Robert Sheldon. As I read it was changing my life. Suddenly I realized I was being watched. One of my roommates was at the door staring at me. Finally he spoke up, "So I guess this is why your mind is so much calmer than the rest of us huh?" It struck me that he was probably right.

3. Reading makes us more interesting to be around.

Small wonder the boredom factor in social gatherings is so great! After you've run through the weather, the kids, the job, and your recent surgery, what else is there? Being a reader adds oil to the friction in conversation. Furthermore, it opens to the businessman new avenues of approach to the outside world. It helps to meet the inquisitive and those needful of our products and services on their own ground or expansion of places they wish they could go. We need to read widely, including some periodicals as well as the classics.

4. Reading strengthens our ability to glean truth from Inspired Reading.

In the Bible, in the New Testament section there was one of Jesus followers. His name was Paul. Paul was a late player to the "Party of Jesus" but become one of its greatest advocates. If you have any sense of the Christian faith at all it most likely has much to do with Paul. He was what you might call a true warrior. At one point Paul's faith in Christ had gotten him tossed in the pokey. Only this was serious. This was probably going to be it for Paul. Paul was in the dungeon awaiting death, he asked his friend to - bring the cloak which I left at Troas . . . and the books, especially the parchments. - 2 Timothy 4:13

The "parchments" referred to the sacred manuscripts, copies of what we think of as Biblical Scripture.

But what about "the books"? What books?

Obviously, those volumes he was reading prior to his imprisonment. Right up to death, that capable spokesman for God - that master of logic - was reading. He certainly would have agreed with another great Christian of letters and of reading John Wesley:

Either read or get out of the ministry!

I think the same holds true of businessmen, of franchisees especially. We have the opportunity to be on the cusp of our market segments but we can lose that edge if we don't keep up. Franchisors you need to create a preferred reading list for your franchisees. You need to have a book of the month club.

Can't find the time? Come on, now . . . not even fifteen minutes? Don't know where to start? How about the library? Most every town has one. Heck, go to the second hand book store. They're filled!

They probably even have books with pictures in 'em. (For your kids, right?)

...and I hope I'm sending this to the ones who will read it and comprehend how powerful it is!

The three R's have stood the test of time as reliable criteria for a dependable education. They are poised like disciplined sentinels against one of man's greatest enemies: ignorance. The original blocks of granite, unimpressed by educational styles, unmoved by change, these three solid friends are trustworthy to the end. Like salve on an open sore, they reduce the fever of panic, giving stability when so many voices demand obedience or other voices, just as demanding elicit panic.

But there is a fly in the ointment . . . one chunk of granite is beginning to crack . . . the sentinel is getting sleepy. The enemy has found the chink in our armor. He has discovered that the first "R" is up for grabs in the twenty-first century. And he is smiling.

"Send me a man who reads" is no longer the clarion call of industry or management . . . or sales, for that matter. Nor is the professional person necessarily known today, as he once was, for his breadth of knowledge . . . and that includes franchisee's and franchisor's.

Few current tragedies pain me more. It is now a fact that one half of the students who graduate from college never read another book. Even though a Ph.D. is virtually obsolete in five years unless he or she continues to read, many of them opt for an easier out. It would shock us all if we knew how little the person reads who defends us in court or does surgery on our bodies or gives us financial counsel. Aside from daily doses of TV Guide, a chuckle at "Peanuts" on Sunday, and a quick skim over the sports section, many an American never cracks another magazine or book.

It's amazing! Before kids are in school, they can give you the day, hour, and channel for a dozen different TV programs, but have trouble struggling through Dick and Jane Play with Spot into the second and third grades. Little Leaguers can spit out the batting averages, RBIs, and stolen base totals for each of their favorite baseball pros (er...so can I for that matter) . . . but stick a copy of Tom Sawyer in front of them (or their parents!) and boredom strikes like summer monsoon lightning in Phoenix, Arizona. A growing number of California high school grads have trouble comprehending basic application forms for employment.

Enough about the problem; let's consider the benefits. I can think of four and will give them to you in two parts. Here's the first:

1. Reading sweeps the cobwebs away.

It enhances thinking. It stretches and strains our mental muscles. It clobbers our brittle, narrow, intolerant opinions with new ideas and strong facts. It stimulates growing up instead of growing old.

Francis Bacon's famous rule is so true, so good:

Read not to contradict or confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Reading expands us. It scratches those itches down deep inside. It navigates us through virgin territory we would not otherwise explore. Tomorrow I'll share three additional benefits. Until then, try reading something expansive!

Part of the challenge many franchise organizations have is that the franchisee's they have do not even review the documents, the training's nor the many magnificent business tomes that would enrich their experience and create greater awareness and savvy for their chosen work.

Until next time, someone out there pick up Greg Nathan's paperback, The Franchise E-Factor. You'll be better for it.