I've usually been a proponent of the BTS process, I've seen some significant progress made when the leadership is engaged. It is clear this year that all levels of senior leadership flat out don't give a shit. Every attempt to discuss what really mattered was funneled into a preconceived format of only talking about things that aren't issues. Brian and the rest of the Clown-level are only interested in the stock price and how it impacts their insider stock sales. Transformation = layoffs and not much else. You aren't fooling anyone Brian.
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I had a manager who didn't over-think the BTS sessions. He'd start out with the results and then let people talk it out, probing into comments that sounded like 'low-hanging fruit'. He couldn't change the fact that we'd been moved to TNC, but he could change THIS policy to make things more flexible; he couldn't change the fact that the cafeteria food was bad but he could bring in another refrigerator and more microwaves in our area, etc. And that made people feel better about the BTS - no one expected our mgmt team to wrest the wheel away from the ship's captain but they felt heard when tangible changes were made. I wasn't cynical about the BTS back then because I felt it was truly useful under that manager's approach.
114563, your comment: "And your Bag of Shit comment is what? A cliche. Look in the mirror and repeat after me: I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!"............I don't need a silly BTS for me to do that and feel splendid. As someone else posted, nothing of any substance ever comes from these BTS, save make-work for the people that actually have real work to do that can help the company.
The possible exception is that the powers-that-be use it to weed out the malcontents (anonymous?.....it's digital people, nothing is anonymous).
And yes 114596, lower corporate is indeed navel-gazing, since upper corporate shares nothing except the 9:00 am notifications. At least our focus has only gone down that far on the anatomy. Upper seems to have their head up...........
Based on all the navel-gazing lower corporate is doing I'm not the least bit surprised the company is in such dire straits. Circling the drain.
Anonymous114563: And your Bag of Shit comment is what? A cliche. Look in the mirror and repeat after me: I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!
114554 - Spare me the cliches. A bag of shit at the beginning is still a bag of shit at the end no matter how much care is spent pondering it.
Like many things in life, you get the BTS experience you deserve.
114482, their 'delusion' doesn't need to be fed. As someone who has gone through the BTS process for 16 years, I can assure you that every year it's basically the same isssues - ie: nothing changes. It's a placebo meant to make us think that the execs give a shit.
114452- you are part of the problem. You tell the top of this company everything is awesome and all that accomplishes is feeding their delusion. Grow a spine.
If your BTS session was the worst ever it's because you aren't making decisions when answering the BTS questionnaire based on game theory. All on my team, with the exception of one new person who would love to spend tons of time exploring 'feelings', said everything was rosey; not wildly happy, just happy. Is this a truthful answer? On any given day, to quote the Drive-By-Truckers, 'hell no I ain't happy', but knowing how the slightest whiff of disappointment turns our manager into blame-seeking-missile, we're Happy Enough and Not Stupid - we like to attend to our work and not sit in an off-site with white boards and colored markers exploring why we don't feel more engaged. We're plenty engaged with our work - there's unease with what 's going on in Greater Target but my work is still important to my business partners - not going to over share about what I feel about the rest of the company.
We'd all hope that the powers that be expected poor BTS results. Given the situation, there's not much that can be done with macro-problems like layoffs and transformation, especially at the Director and below level. No matter how frustrating it seems, it does make sense to still have the BTS survey. We should all hope that leadership wants to improve employee satisfaction and engagement (they will get nothing done if they don't), so it's important to baseline this BTS valley so they can identify how improvements have impacted TM engagement/satisfaction in future BTS surveys.
Don't get me wrong -- I never LOVED BTS. I wanted them to immediately fix all my gripes, and they never did. (a bit of fun sarcasm intended)
114167......Leadership Expectations?? Are you serious? If ever there was a crock of BS that also managed to waste an obscene amount of time for little value, that was it. If you really needed that crap to learn something, you didn't pay attention and get any value out of your college education. As for BTS, our group learned to put on a smiley face and say everything was just peachy. If not, the result would be your "leaders" assigning you to groups to study the comments. PS, if you ever thought the BTS was really anonymous, you are a fool.......don't believe me? next time in the comments section write something about being upset, having a gun...etc, etc (see how fast they show up at your desk).
Guys, BTS is one thing that Target had as a sane thing it ever did along with the LE's. Please dont blame it so much. Those two were the things what helped mould you that your parents, teachers and your efforts could not achieve.
I know you are but what am I. BTS is crap, nothing to get worked up over. Getting laid off, that sucks!
Anonymous114100: Do you work.... Stop posting senseless comments online.
Then don't blow smoke up my ass and hound me participate in the survey if it is just an excercise in BS. I have actual work to do.
Look, can we all get over al the BTS BS. It was ALWAYS BS anyways, right???? Did anything ever really come of the BTS sessions besides give a clever format for TM's to vent? Clearly right now Target is not Best Team.... The company's in flux, thousands have been let go, re-orgs are in process or have just happened : PD&D etc. TTS is on the verge of completely changing. The stores are changing before our eyes - go out and look. There is no simple answer to this unfortunately.