Would Bears Get Stay Interviews Right?

The images you see here look fresh off the internet, but they were actually taken last Wednesday in our yard. From inside, of course. We live in the one zip code in Florida most known for its black bear population, and you are seeing a burly Mom care for her kids, along with a cub licking a sprinkler head…or doing karaoke, not sure. They are living in the woods beside our home. The box Mom is licking once contained tasty dog treats for our guys, Bruni and Barry, stolen from our porch immediately after delivery.

Betty, as we call her, seems to have two life objectives: protect her kids and feed herself and family. We’ve learned black bears travel up to 60 miles a day searching for berries and other vegetative foods, but like a good Mom, Betty is stationery for a while with her newborns. Yes, they are cute…and yes, she would kill to protect them.

The “protect-her-kids-and-feed-her-family” part reminds me of most of us. We have the same instincts plus at least one other primary one which is to socialize with others. Bears travel alone when not with their young. Males especially live solitary lives.

At work, I think we often forget the socializing part of our lives. By that I don’t mean we need more social gatherings, or as we say here, “more events with food”. It’s the deeper-connecting times where we measure the quality of our jobs by the substance of our relationships there. Most happen by circumstance as we meet someone with common interests and connect with them on that thread going forward…even if that common interest is a negative one about their jobs.

Here’s a strong statement: We give managers no established, pre-planned way to connect with their teams as people. There are only two kinds of meetings at work: Did you do your work? And here’s more work. Hallway walk-by comments like “How was your weekend?” are greetings but not real questions. Or we tack on three “How you doing?” questions on the end of performance reviews that have no meaning compared to the main event.

This is why Stay Interviews have zoomed in popularity…and they should. Invented here, we now get LinkedIn invitations from executives in Asia, Africa, and even the Middle East asking how to make them happen. The word is widely out that Stay Interviews build engagement and reduce turnover…because they bring leaders on all levels a structured way to connect.

I’ve watched Betty for a few days now and am certain she is fully committed to her priorities. I think she’d be great doing Stay Interviews if given the chance to go beyond her ongoing search for food and protection of her cubs and connect to the bears she passes each day and night.

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