Practicing What You Preach – Why Corporate Koolaid Is A Good Thing

HR Marketer’s Mark Willaman recently did a post on how companies need to use their own products and services. The post is definitely worth a read and gives some great non-HR examples including a “secret shopping” CEO doing his own research in the grocery store. Willaman’s point is that employees and organizations as a whole often fail to use their own products. It’s the classic Coke sales person seen driving around in the Coke truck drinking a bottle of Pepsi!

Yes, it is funny to picture, but the sad part is how very true it is, especially in technology companies. If you don’t use your own technology how can you improve it? Or believe in what you are doing? There’s a requisite level of passion that goes into building and constantly improving on technology. How passionate can you really be when you aren’t practicing what you preach?

At Halogen Software, we are strong believers in our technology and approach to talent management. Earlier this week I was reviewing my team’s quarterly objectives, and I was able to complete them using our employee performance management system in no time. Like most people, I have many other things on my plate, so being able to do this quickly and easily, while ensuring there was value, was outstanding. I know it sounds like I am drinking the old corporate Kool-Aid – but in this case, it is completely true. Otherwise, I wouldn’t take the time to write about it, because clearly, I have other things I could be doing.