disconnect

Employee Insights

Updates from the bottom rung

Karin Allen

Cabela’s Outfitter • Gifts & Fudge - Grand Junction • April 22, 2013

I AM...not sure what this I AM campaign means. What are the strategic focus areas 2013-2015?  Why should I care?

I AM trying to communicate the disconnect between corporate, management and outfitters in the “field”

I AM hoping for two way communication

not just trickle down.

DISCONNECT

“TRY PROCESS CHANGES THROUGH OUR REGIONAL LEGENDARY IMPRESSIONS CHAMPION”  - I AM a proponent for process improvement

speak English please - what does this mean?

Retail Innovation Pipeline  Jan/Feb/March 2013

I took a copy of the “Pipeline” and was completely baffled by the front page article.  Let me share my lack of understanding.  First, I don’t know what the wiki is or how to search it.  Is that short for Wikipedia?  No, I tried that.  Second, just what are the strategic focus areas 2013-2015?  Have they changed since the 2012 strategic focus in my traditions handbook?  Either way, the handbook doesn’t really explain anything - it’s just a chart and some bullets.  The article does nothing to explain anything.  Maybe it’s just a teaser - don’t touch that dial - stay tuned for more information. 

I’m still wondering what the new visual might be and where the current strategic focus areas posters are that are hanging in the store.  I just received the folder with the I AM cards and I’ll have to admit that I didn’t even look in the folder until another employee found her cards and asked what the heck is this?  I replied that they were the I AM cards that I had been wondering about for a month.  

Now it’s like a puzzle.  What strategic focus area does this card go to???  

I AM present for my customers... easy, focus on the customer

I AM a Cabela’s brand ambassador...probably retail profitability because there’s more profit in our branded items

I AM an advocate of Cabela’s technology... direct channel growth, if direct channel is the internet.  

I AM mindful of Cabela’s expenses... maybe retail profitability... HEY - it says to participate in recycling programs.  I didn’t think we had one.  How can I participate?

I couldn’t figure out which strategic focus at least 3 or 4 of the cards were alluding to .

The Point:

Unfortunately these cards are written by someone else to tell us who we are supposed to BE as employees of Cabela’s.  I don’t really like someone telling me who I AM.  So I’ll write my own:

I AM quietly driving my own high standards

I AM part of Cabela’s community (not family)

I AM doing the best I can at my job with the tools and training I have been given

I AM amazing and constantly amazed

I AM trying to be an ambassador for peace 

I did casually ask a couple of other outfitters what they thought about the I AM cards and no one knew what I was talking about.  Can there be a disconnect if there is no connection to begin with?

A Simple Solution:   radical & not easy

Trash the Cabela’s Family thing.  I grew up in a family.  Families tend to be dysfunctional. I feel like I’ve married into the Cabela’s dysfunctional family and I want a divorce; or at least some counseling.

Example:  Please, Dad, can I have a small vacuum to suck up crumbs in the fudge shop and the styrofoam crumbs in gifts during the day?  Sure, I’ll go get one today.... hasn’t happened.  Here kids, thanks for cleaning out the garage. Here’s $10.  Go to a movie and have a pizza.  (never said in reply - but Dad, $10 won’t buy a movie or a pizza).  I’m referring to my paycheck in case you didn’t get it)

If you really want to create the Culture, create community.  It can’t be done from the top down. It involves facing the crap and working through it together.  It’s frustrating, painful and rewarding.  It involves trust building, honesty and integrity.  And I don’t mean printing it in the handbook, I mean living it in real, messy life.  A pretty lofty goal.  I know I am naive, but I believe that it is possible unless the core values is just an ad campaign designed to screw the bottom rung.  In my dysfunctional family my father was at least honest enough to say out loud, “Do what I say, not what I do”.