Peak Performance Culture

Chapter 6The Employee Experience

My career in human resources development took a huge step forward in the spring of 1986 when I was officially hired by Marshall Field and Company. I had worked with them indirectly since 1984 as I was employed by one of their partners, Platt Music Corporation. Platt managed the electronics department for Marshall Field's, and I had worked my way from a customer service representative to their lone training and development professional over a two‐year span. When Marshall Field's recruited me to join what was considered at the time to be one of the premier retail employee training and development operations, I was giddy.

Being a training professional navigating the onboarding and training process as a new hire is a distinctly meta experience. You are simultaneously trying to assimilate all the information while evaluating it to make recommendations for enhancement. Few professional experiences have stuck with me as clearly as my first day of new hire orientation at the Old Orchard store in Skokie, Illinois. The trainer whom I was replacing due to promotion introduced a customer service video produced by John Cleese's company. Yes, for you Monty Python and A Fish Called Wanda fans, that John Cleese. An updated version of the video, “If Looks Could Kill,” still exists to this day. I remember watching it and thinking, “This is exactly how training should be done, entertaining and educational.” Perhaps it was that video that would be the subconscious ...