Review: Getting weird(er)

By Porter Anderson
CNN Career

(CNN) -- "With an economy that now values brains over brawn, mind over muscle, the old definitions for work and success have been turned upside down," writes John Putzier in his book, "Get Weird!"

"A new language, a new lifestyle and a new workplace are emerging and redefining the employee-employer relationship."

Putzier -- president of workplace strategies consulting firm FirStep Inc. in Prospect, Pennsylvania -- goes on to assert that "employers are no longer in the driver's seat, and that can be good news for everyone."

Now, you may not feel yourself to be tooting the horn even today. Depending on where and how you labor, you might not be ready to say the current career scene is "good news for everyone."

But put that aside, and consider some of Putzier's "101 Innovative Ways To Make Your Company a Great Place To Work." That's a trick, actually -- there is no No. 101. "You've already got it," Putzier writes as you pant your way across the finish line on Page 179. "If you've read this far and still haven't come up with an original thought, please call 911. In fact, never mind -- you're already brain-dead!"

Sweet guy, that Putzier, huh?

QUICKVOTE If you suggested some of John Putzier's ways to "Get Weird!" where you work, what would happen to you? I'd be warmly thanked by management and my co-workers. I'd be thanked by co-workers, glared at by management. I'd be thanked by management, ostracized by my co-workers. I'd be looking for a new job by lunchtime. View Results

He even wants you to keep what he calls a Personal Brainspurt Journal and drop your best ("weird") ideas to him. He'll send you an autographed copy of the book if your idea makes it into his next manual on the subject. Such a deal.

His own 100 weirdnesses are divided into chapters including "Weird Ideas to Win Today's Talent," "Weird Ideas for Changing Your Company Culture" and "Weird Ideas for Perks, Pay and Pats on the Back."

Numero Uno? "A press release announcing a new hire, a promotion, an award or any other good news is not only good PR for your company, but is also a powerful and free way to recognize and reward your people."

This is weird? Forgive, if you can, an unavoidable press bias here, but Putzier clearly has never stood by a news medium's fax machine for an hour and counted how many unsolicited press releases with just such warm-and-fuzzy bits of info came rolling across ... usually to fall directly into a recycling bin.

In Putzier's defense, he does go on to suggest that such press releases be sent to employees' hometown papers, journals, association newsletters, college alumni publications, and so on. But "getting weird?" Surely this isn't it.

He gets slightly weirder in his second suggestion, recommending an employer place help-wanted ads deliberately in the wrong career category, being above-board about it: "Are you a frustrated waitress?"

More ideas on pulling in good talent: Keep an eye on outside contractors' people, maybe they're worth hiring; use Southwest Airlines' approach of "hiring for attitude -- training for skill" by asking on job applications, "Describe yourself in three words" and "Tell me your favorite joke" and "Tell me about one of your most embarrassing moments."

Now, in a chapter called "Weird Ideas for the Care and Feeding of Today's Talent," Putzier does come up with one that's certainly intriguing, if not weird. No. 27, as it appears here, has been gaining popularity among employees for years, while leaving a lot of suits cold -- open-book management. "If someone wants to know what the company spends on equipment, supplies or other business expenses," Putzier writes, "he can get it. If someone wants to know the strategic plan, she can see it. The more high performers you hire, the more 'nosiness' you are going to have. This is not only normal but healthy."

Challenges for change from 'Get Weird!' Change all the stations on your car radio, and listen to them. No going back. Take a different route to or from work and pay attention to what is around you. Change something about your daily routine. Get lost. Get into your car and go against your instincts to want to know where you are. Track down and contact someone from your distant past. Change something significant about your appearance. Not just your cologne or your shoes -- pierce something! Moonlight. Get a job you like. Do it for something besides the money. Start a new hobby, something out of the ordinary (for you). Take a class in something irrelevant (not job- or work-related). Read or subscribe to an offbeat publication -- something you may disagree with. Get to know some weirdoes. Start hanging out with a different crowd for a while. Join an organization that wouldn't want you. Source: 'Get Weird!' by John Putzier, Amacom, May 2001

How about it? Do you think your company is ready to throw open the books and let you pore over that plan to close the marketing division, lay everybody off and outsource a few of those good press releases back in Weirdness No. 1. Putzier quotes George Jendran of Inc. magazine offering these three principles of open-book management:

* Companies need to share all their important financial and operating information with all their employees all the time

* Nobody will understand the information, so you have to train them -- you have to run 'economic and business literacy programs' within your company

* You have to increasingly find ways to tie all your compensation within your company into your financials so that a greater and greater percentage of your compensation is incentive-based, exactly the way it is for an owner, i.e. based on results

So, as you study up on the salaries all your co-workers are making in that open-book management program your company has set up, we'll just move on to a few more of Putzier's weirdnesses.

* No. 60 encourages the adoption of "unusual" job titles. "At Orlando Regional Healthcare," Putzier tells us, "people are 'careholders.'" Among other titles he cites: Duke of Cool, ISO Queen, Guru of Fun (indeed, at Career we've heard of a Director of Fun at a company in South Carolina), Information Highwayman and Chief People, Progress and Potential Officer, or CP3O -- get it?

* No. 46 recommends having employees send chain letters -- so handy with e-mail, he reminds us -- in which people share "personal recipes, poems, words of wisdom or anything that others might find useful or interesting.

* No. 66 is called "Name That Room." Examples are "John's John" and "Sally's Stall." Are you flush with excitement about this idea?

* No. 97 is called "Greeters and Minglers." As in have people on staff to greet and mingle with customers and clients. Do you think Putzier hasn't heard about the layoffs? Do you think he believes those greeters and minglers are now gripping and grinning with civil servants at the unemployment office?

As you approach the missing No. 101 -- actually, long before then -- you realize that this book has two problems. First, the ideas in it aren't all that weird. And second, they're not all that good, either. Most are silly. Period.

If you work at a company in which the administration spends time deliberately creating "mystery messes" and hiding little prizes under the clutter so you'll learn to clean things up (this is Putzier's No. 79), you may want to consider another work venue.

If putting up a "wall of fame" board of commendations (No. 64) seems an original idea to you, then you probably have never had to hang out at your car dealership while some service was done on your vehicle. This isn't new, and it's even less weird.

Overall, Putzier's book is a bust. While there's nothing wrong, of course, with an effort to make the workplace more entertaining -- the not-at-all theory being that happy people are more productive -- this are fairly tepid ways of going about it. They're likelier to get an administration laughed at than appreciated by a staff that isn't, to use Putzier's unfortunate phrase, brain-dead.

Mulling these proposals from "Get Weird!" you may conclude that normality has never looked so good.