Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees As If They're Real People by Rodd WagnerOn March 24, 2015, Rodd Wagner released Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees As If They’re Real People.

 

“People are not your greatest asset. They’re not yours, and they’re not assets.”1 They also aren’t FTEs (full-time equivalents), headcount, human capital, human resources, overhead, inventory, meatware, etc.2 “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.”3

 

Homo economicus (Economic Man) is rational.  He thrives in a command and control environment of expectations and consequences. And…he doesn’t exist.  People are not always rational.4

 

“Homo reciprocans (Reciprocal Man) is often motivated by principle, by a sense of obligation, or for the satisfaction of doing something good for someone else.”5

 

“This is where a company posts a job with ‘competitive pay and benefits’ to attract Economicus and a sentimental Reciprocans shows up on a mission to do something that makes a difference.”6

 

This book is “a guide for ferreting out and fixing all the ways your company treats its people like widgets.”7

 

The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees As If They Were Real People.

 

The First Rule: Get Inside Their Heads8
“From the employee’s perspective, being treated as a unique individual and showered with a lot of attention is baked into the employment deal.”9

 

 

The Second Rule: Make Them Fearless10
“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.”11

 

 

The Third Rule: Make Money a Non-Issue12
“In the future, companies will have to keep pay from being an issue by making it fair.”13

 

 

The Fourth Rule: Help Them Thrive14
“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.”15

 

 

The Fifth Rule: Be Cool16
“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.”17

 

 

The Sixth Rule: Be Boldly Transparent18
“It’s never been more important to run a company so that there’s nothing to hide.”19 “The signals are clear: it’s now time to share.”20

 

 

The Seventh Rule: Don’t Kill the Meaning21
“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.”22

 

 

The Eighth Rule: See Their Future23
“[A]n 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.”24

 

 

The Ninth Rule: Magnify Their Success25
“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.”26

 

 

The Tenth Rule: United Them27
“Uniting a group of employees is a matter of creating the conditions under which collaboration naturally develops and increases.”28

 

 

The Eleventh Rule: Let Them Lead29
“There is a large body of research on how important it is for employees to have a say in how their work is done.”30

 

 

The Twelfth Rule: Take It to Extremes31
“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.”32 “The second reason why people push themselves to extremes is for their own personal sense of accomplishment.”33

 

 

“Each of these ideas individually is a substantial revision of the playbook now used by leaders and managers. Together, they constitute a comprehensive rethinking of the strategies for attracting, retaining, and motivating people on the job.”34

 

 

Which of the 12 Rules most resonated with you? How will you use this book to stop treating your employees as widgets?

 

 

1 Wagner, Rodd. “Human Resources.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 1. Print.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. 2.
4 Wagner, Rodd. “The Reciprocal Employee.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 12. Print.
5 Ibid. 15.
6 Wagner, Rodd. “The Seventh Rule: Don’t Kill the Meaning.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 113. Print.
7 Wagner, Rodd. “Human Resources.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 9. Print.
8 Wagner, Rodd. “The First Rule: Get Inside Their Heads.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 25. Print.
9 Ibid. 28.
10 Wagner, Rodd. “The Second Rule: Make Them Fearless.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 39. Print.
11 Ibid. 51.
12 Wagner, Rodd. “The Third Rule: Make Money a Non-Issue.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 53. Print.
13 Ibid. 65.
14 Wagner, Rodd. “The Fourth Rule: Help Them Thrive.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 67. Print.
15 Ibid. 76.
16 Wagner, Rodd. “The Fifth Rule: Be Cool.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 81. Print.
17 Ibid. 82.
18 Wagner, Rodd. “The Sixth Rule: Be Boldly Transparent.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 95. Print.
19 Ibid. 98.
20 Ibid. 108.
21 Wagner, Rodd. “The Seventh Rule: Don’t Kill the Meaning.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 109. Print.
22 Ibid. 122.
23 Wagner, Rodd. “The Eighth Rule: See Their Future.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 123. Print.
24 Ibid. 135.
25 Wagner, Rodd. “The Ninth Rule: Magnify Their Success.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 137. Print.
26 Ibid. 148.
27 Wagner, Rodd. “The Tenth Rule: United Them.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 149. Print.
28 Ibid. 151.
29 Wagner, Rodd. “The Eleventh Rule: Let Them Lead.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 163. Print.
30 Ibid. 165.
31 Wagner, Rodd. “The Twelfth Rule: Take It to Extremes.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 175. Print.
32 Ibid. 181.
33 Ibid. 182.
34 Wagner, Rodd. “Is ‘Paradise’ Too Over the Top? Handling The Truth.” Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees as If They’re Real People. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. 200. Print.

 

 

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