During Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign, his lead strategist, the always-colorful James Carville, coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid!” to represent the single most important issue on the minds of voters that year. The final word was placed there not so much to insult the intellect of the electorate, but rather to point out the ease with which we can overlook the obvious.

Some years later, in our first book, Contented Cows Give Better Milk, we channeled the phrase’s sentiment to remind readers that if you’re looking for the single most important factor in the success of your organization, don’t overcomplicate it. “It’s your people, stupid!”

No, we don’t think our readers are stupid, any more than we think they’re cows. But 25 years on, it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves that creating a focused, engaged, and capably led workforce is STILL one of the best things any organization can do for its bottom line. This is especially important as rapidly advancing technology, including Artificial Intelligence, takes over more and more functions that we mere mortals have always done.

It’s STILL Your People, Stupid!

This truth was on full display for me toward the end of July as I, along with millions of others got clobbered by the colossal CrowdStrike crash that caused chaos on computers across the cosmos.

I was comparatively lucky. I wasn’t in the hospital, or needing to call 911, but I was flying (or at least trying), on Delta, whose disruptions lingered for days after many other organizations had recovered. I got where I was going, eventually. But over an 8-day period, I experienced multiple delays, a cancellation, an unexpected hotel stay (at Delta’s expense), and one WAY-too-close-for-comfort last-second boarding adventure.  

You won’t find many more ardent or loyal Delta fans than me. But I’ll be the first to say – they sure screwed up this time!

Delta’s operations went into a total meltdown. However, and this is an important “however”… through it all, every single Delta-employed human I encountered performed at a 10-star level. They were exceptional. Fantastic. Friendly, flexible, empathetic, creative, pragmatic. I couldn’t have asked for more. The people on Delta’s front line made a bad situation better, even if some of the suits in Atlanta couldn’t claim credit for the same.

In a world of chronically low unemployment, with a workforce that has an annoying habit of not being like we were “when we were coming up”, and where recruiting, retention, and leadership require real effort and commitment, it might seem tempting to offload as much work as we can on AI and other electronic tools and machines. They don’t complain, have families, seek work-life balance, want to work from home where a “supervisor” can’t watch every move, or ask for development opportunities, raises, or promotions. And they don’t quit or go off to work for a competitor who’s offering a better deal.

But neither are they a match for Thea, the Delta agent in my home airport of Jacksonville who made doubly sure I got to my destination last week. Or Cameron, the flight attendant who “snuck” a 7-year-old coach passenger into the first class cabin so the child could use the restroom, because he “really had to go!” after our first hour on the tarmac. Or Mae, the grandmotherly-sounding call center agent whose keyboard skills are as advanced as her people skills, and who got me the last available seat on a flight that the Delta app told me was full.

We can question Delta’s choice of technology vendors, but one thing they have absolutely mastered, with only rare exceptions, is getting the right people on board (so to speak), and then setting high expectations, training them, and managing their performance to deliver an experience that got them the top spot on J.D. Power’s 2024 North America Airline Satisfaction Study.

Believe me, I’m pro-technology. In my personal and business life, I tend to be an early adopter of new tools, and I use them successfully. But as we explore the potential of AI and other technology, let’s just keep our sights set on what really makes the difference. “What is that?” you ask?

It’s your people, stupid!