How leaders use decencies to build great companies one gesture at a time.

By Steve Harrison

These are examples of practices I call business decencies. A business decency is a gesture offered without expectation of reward that in ways small and large change the corporate culture for the better. You don’t have to be a CEO or senior executive to practice decencies. You don’t need a budget. You don’t need permission. What business decencies do require is action. Virtually anyone in the organization can practice them.

I believe that a company’s culture can be molded — and for the better — by the cumulative power of small actions. It’s about the way leaders choose to behave — the actions we embrace — every day, especially during the quiet moments when we think no one is watching. 

The two-minute schmooze.
I wasn't always attuned to business decencies. A few years ago, I accompanied Ray, our chief operating officer at the time, to meet the people at our various offices across the country. At that point, Ray had just been appointed to his position. We arrived at our first stop, a mid-sized branch, and passed through the glass doors into the familiar reception area.

Suddenly I found myself being pulled back into the reception area. “What’s wrong?” I asked. Ray said nothing, but guided me back to the reception desk. Then I watched as Ray made an ally and a memory. The first thing Ray did was stick out his right hand, a gesture reinforced by his charismatic smile that generated enough electricity to power a small town, and said, “Good morning, Melissa, I’m Ray. I’m new here. It’s so great to meet you!” After introducing himself, Ray launched into a dialogue with Melissa. She was obviously delighted with the exchange.     

As I closed the door to the meeting area, I looked at Ray. “What was that all about?” He answered: “It’s called the two-minute schmooze. Our receptionists meet or talk by phone to more people critical to our company in one day than you or I will ever meet in the course of a year: people at all levels, from all of our branches everywhere, our customers, our suppliers, our colleagues, our bosses, our applicants and job-seekers. Melissa and the dozens like her are nothing less than our concierge desk. They control our reputation. And anyway, it’s a decent thing to do, just the decent thing to do.” 

Six characteristics of effective
business decencies.
Decencies signal many things. “Warm and fuzzy” is one of them, and that’s okay. But there must be an element of business rigor to decencies if we want them to be effective. Based on my research, effective decencies have most or all of the following characteristics.   

Actionable — A decency is both an action and a catalyst for action. The only effective way for an organization to change is by change behavior. The act of choosing to perform a decency signals an immediate change in the behavior of the manager who offers it. The behavior of the person who receives the decency may also change. He or she may be inspired by the decency to perform better or communicate more effectively, or he or she may emulate the decency to other co-workers. Taken together, the initial action and the catalyzed action improve the culture of the organization for the better. Ray’s two-minute schmooze was a discreet action—a conversation—that was a catalyst to encourage other managers to the same behavior. 

Tangible — A decency is capable of being handled or touched, or causes a measurable change to the environment. An intangible decency, by contrast, is a virtue such as integrity or honesty. These are desirable qualities to strive for. When these qualities are expressed in a way that is tangible, then virtues become decencies. It is perceptible by the senses and memorable. Melissa the receptionist probably recalled the specifics of her conversation with Ray many years later.

Pragmatic — A business decency must be guided by a sensibility that refers to good judgment, discrimination, and balance. It’s not hard to let one’s imagination run wild in a world of no constraints, but in business where constraints are very real, decencies that are pragmatic have the best opportunities for success. If the telephone had been ringing or other guests were waiting to be greeted, for instance, it wouldn’t have been practical for Ray to engage Melissa for such an extended conversation.

Replicable — Repeating the two-minute schmooze did not in any way diminish its power. A decency offered to an individual is always welcome, but if the gesture is so constituted that it can be offered to only one individual, it does not rise to the level of a small decency. It’s a one-off. A small decency should be able to function gracefully for more than one individual, in organizations of various sizes. Or, it should be able to evolve within a single organization as the size of that organization expands or contracts. 

Examples of small business decencies.

Ripples in a pond:
the Impact of small decencies.
I’d like to think I’ve mastered the two-minute schmooze, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I’ve made friends with a lot of these special people and listened to their stories. 

Receptionists are for your company like the concierge is at the Ritz Carlton: the first people your visitors meet; the traffic manager of relationships; the true differentiators of your brand. They have to be familiar with your business, not just your products, but your culture. Elevating them to “directors of first impressions” will create a band of ambassadors at the front doors of your business.  

The two-minute schmooze costs nothing but pays off handsomely. It needs no one’s permission to put into action and is replicable. The decency can be applied to organizations with one receptionist or hundreds.  If the two-minute schmooze empowered just one receptionist, that fact would be enough justification for it. 

The two-minute schmooze subsequently became widely practiced throughout the company, as I discovered some years later. I was visiting another branch office, many miles and many years remote from the place I first encountered the two-minute schmooze. By this time, the decency came naturally to me. As Nancy, the receptionist, and I were talking, Gary, the regional vice president asked Nancy to give me one of her business cards. Business cards for receptionists? That was new to me. Of course, I expressed immediate interest and she proudly put a card in my hand. Under Nancy’s name, her title stood out: “Director of First Impressions.” 

This decency created ripples that spread to other locations, enriching the lives of an unknown number of people who work for the same company without necessarily knowing each other. Is it an impact that shows up on a balance sheet? Perhaps not. But maybe the impact is more significant in that it shows up every time a receptionist—excuse me, director of first impressions — greets a visitor, answers the telephone, or responds to a question.  

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou

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