Cultural Transformation

Culture of Curiousity or Fear?

In today's world of rapid change, it is imperative that organizations have a Culture that is naturally curious about how to improve everything imaginable.  In organizations with a naturally curious Culture, team members are open to new ideas and receptive to constantly evolving.

On the contrary, those organizations that are married to a Culture that are fear-based typically defend the status quo and are sentenced to a world of mediocrity and a future of limitation and risk.

What is the primary difference between a Culture of Curiosity and a Culture of Status Quo?

One word.  Fear.

Organizations where fear is a part of the Culture are organizations that have a very limited future.  Fear-based organizations will never compete with organizations that are naturally curious. 

Where does this fear come from?

From my personal observations over the last decade - the primary problem is poor Job fit where management and employee team members do not fit their jobs. 

Those who do not fit their jobs will be emotionally sentenced to defending what they do and how they do it.  I call it the "Justification Doom Loop".  Why do most Culture Transformation endeavors fail?  Simply because one cannot address the Culture of the organization without understanding Job Fit and what the current Culture is.

Is there fear in your organization?  We would love to show you how to measure the Culture of your organization.  One cannot transform the Culture of the organization without understanding what it is.

What gets measured gets improved.

Your Culture Is Probably Not What You Think It Is

We had a long-term manufacturing Client who had been in business for 20 years.  The CEO was a majority shareholder and was absolutely brilliant.  This CEO knew his market at such a high level that I was in awe.

In reviewing his organization, we came to realize that his Culture was one of low Personal Accountability and quite high in entitlement thinking.  When I shared this information with him, he was not pleased.  His response was a terse, "That is not our Culture."

The CEO wanted to believe his Culture was "X".  The reality is his Culture was really "Y".

The data was correct. 

Unfortunately this particular CEO did not know his Culture.  He believed what he saw.  His perspective was tainted by his own personal view as well as his bias.

The reality is most CEOs are way off with regard to what they believe their Culture to be and what it actually is.

If one is attempting to transform the Culture of the organization, it is critical to know what the Culture is as objectively as possible.  When it comes to the Culture of the organization, it is critical to measure it objectively.  Without measurement, one cannot make the appropriate changes to create the desired Culture. 

Furthermore, it is important to understand that The Culture of the organization is a direct reflection of the Behaviors, Values, and Personal Attributes of the collective employee team members.

Therefore Job Fit is critical to creating the kind of Culture one desires.

High performers contribute to the Culture of the organization.  Low performers also contribute - negatively.

Is Your Corporate Culture All Hat and No Cattle?

The great state of North Dakota is my home.  Yes...  It is cold here.  The people are wonderfully kind and helpful.  North Dakota is a fantastic place to raise a family... 

For the record, I did not grow up on the farm.  It is an interesting thing to see some of my neighbors driving big four wheel drive pickups that could be pulling cattle trailers but they are not.  Instead, these big pickups are going to the grocery store but never the farm field.  Many of these big pickups have not actually been on a dirt road. 

And once in a while I see someone that I know who does not have any cattle with a big hat on driving their big trucks from grocery store to home.  One might say, "They are all hat and no cattle..."  They have the big truck and the big hat...  But no cattle. 

Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with companies and CEOs that "got it" in terms of true awareness of their Culture and others that did not. 

Interestingly, the organizations and CEOs that had a more realistic grasp of their Culture actually performed better. 

Key Corporate Culture Distinction - Every company has "Culture".  Unfortunately, not every CEO has a real grasp of what their Culture truly is.

Some CEOs are unaware or in denial about what their Culture really is.

Naturally, as we work with our Clients, we spend time with them.  As a result, we often find a "disconnect" between what the CEO and senior leadership thinks the Culture is and what we observe.  This is a common occurance.

Saying what the Culture is does not make it so.

A conversation I had with a CEO a couple years ago serves as an excellent example...

Me:  "I need to share something with you...  There is an obvious lack of Personal Accountability in your organization.  From you own words, Personal Accountability is important in your organization but few employee team members are actually living it.  In fact, few of your values are being "lived" at the present moment by your employees.  In summary, your view of the Culture and what it actually is from my perspective and experience are completely different."

Side note...  This particular company had a history of a strong product that practically sold itself.  Most sales team members actually sold less in raw dollars than what their salaries were.

CEO:  "That's just not possible.  My employees are very accountable.  Employees are rewarded for their performance.  They are hard working..."  More defensive language follows...

To clarify - Note what the CEO said...  "Employees are rewarded for their performance."  When the company did well, everyone received the same bonus.  This bonus does not represent "Personal Accountability".  "Group accountability" is an oxymoron.   

Important Cultural Transformation Note - The CEO sets the Cultural tone of the organization.  Therefore, all problems start at the head...  The buck stops with the CEO. 

It is the responsibility of the CEO to know what their Culture is and how that Culture is creating shareholder value, helping retain top performing employee team members, and maximizing the Customer Experience.

In the past, intangibles such as Culture and values have been challenging and costly to accurately measure.  The result is Culture and values are not typically a part of the leader's scorecard or "dashboard" of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).  The good news...  The Cultural Transformation Tools or CTT is a detailed diagnostic report of the Culture of the organization. 

The Cultural Transformation Tools are based on the Seven Levels of Consciousness Model.  Awareness of the Seven Levels of Consciousness Model enables measuring the alignment of the personal values of employee team members with those of the current Culture of the organization, and those of the current Culture with the desired Culture. 

Important distinction...  It is difficult to change what you do not know with relative certainty.  What gets measured gets improved...  Our experience suggests that the Culture of the organization should be measured on an annual basis.  How else can one measure improvement?

Give us a call and we will be happy to share how to measure your team or organization's Culture - 866-988-RAIN (7246).

Seven Distinctions between Cultural Change and Cultural Transformation

Change is constant.

Competitors come and go changing the competitive landscape.

Products and services are created and evolve.

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less

General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

The one thing that is a constant in business is adaptation.  Adapt or crash...

Adaptation must be constant.  Corporate cultures adapt or their business models fail to thrive or fail altogether.  Cultural change is often forced due to some "external" economic impact - creating short and long-term employee engagement costs.  Cultural Transformation is a long-term "process" where the buy-in of employee team members plays a role.

The question is - "Are we talking about Cultural Change or Cultural Transformation?"  Is chnage forced or transformed through employee team member engagement?

From my research and experience, the differences between Cultural Change and Cultural Transformation may be described in the following "dimensions":

1. Internal or Externally-Driven - In other words is the culture transition through force, evolution, or constant gentle pressure? The more management or economic "force" required to make the corporate culture transition, the more likely the culture transition is Cultural Change. If employee team members are more "willing" - they will proactively listen to leadership and take part in the Cultural Transformation.
2. Duration of Culture Transition - The amount of time that a culture transition occurs depends upon the stimulae that are encouraging or forcing that adaptation. If economic forces or new management are forcing a culture transition within a short time frame, it is Cultural Change. The longer the period of time of culture transition, the more likely it is Cultural Transformation.
3. Belief - The lower the "belief level" in the organization's mission, vision, and guiding values, the more likely the culture transition is Cultural Change. The higher the "belief", the more likely the culture transition is internally-driven Cultural Transformation that comes as a result of employee team member engagement and active involvement. Therefore it is important to have employee team members who have the ability to believe in the mission, vision, and guiding values.
4. Learning Organization - The more an organization is committed to training and developing their talent and future leaders, the better equipped employee team members will be to making long-term Cultural Transformation a reality. Organizations that invest in training and development from a "reactionary" perspective in order to address "problem areas" reactively will be more likely to force corporate culture transition through short-term-oriented Cultural Change.
5. Low / No Transparency - If the corporate culture does not foster transparency and candor the result will be missed opportunity to create long-term Cultural Transformation.
6. Performance-based Compensation - If compensation is not directly tied to performance, "force" will be required in order to create lasting change. The result is Cultural Change.
7. Job Fit - The lower the overall "Job Fit" - the more likely "force" will become necessary in order to create the desired corporate culture transition. The more force - the more likely the culture transition is Cultural Change. Better Job Fit means employee team members are able to focus on doing what they need to do to get the job done and create the desired future through Cultural Transformation.

Cultural Change is the result of external forces from management and/or competitive threats. 

Cultural Transformation comes as a result of constant gentle pressure that is internally-motivated rather than externally-originated.

Cultural Transformation creates better-lasting, long-term results.

Questions?  866-988-RAIN (7246)

Now Go Maximize Possibility

 

Culture of Winning - Playing to Win or Surviving?

What is the Cultural Mindset of your team and organization? 

The leadership sets the tone - the mindset of the organization - the Culture comes from the top.

Are you surviving or "playing to win"?  Are your leaders playing to win?  Or are they playing to survive?

Tim Sanders' post No One Plays to Survive is an excellent mindset shift that individuals, teams, and organizations need to strongly consider.  Surviving is not enough. 

In "Survival Is Not Enough", Seth Godin said about survival and change, "Most of us view change as a threat and survival as the goal."

What is survival?

• Survival is doing the same thing over and over again because it is "safe" and "proven".
• Survival is hoping that the way things have always been done will always suffice - that it will always be good enough. Unfortunately in today's highly-competitive world, doing the same thing and expecting success long-term is a recipe for irrelevance.

If you are not taking risks - "playing to win" - you are likely surviving. 

Playing to win is the answer.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a Powerful Team Building Program

Is Trust a Core Value of your Culture?

Is unbridled conflict an issue for your team?  Are team members talking about what needs to be talked about?

What do employee team members focus on?  Protecting themselves and their interests or positioning the team to flourish?

Trust must be a core value of any successful team.  Without trust, teams and organizations focus on protecting their individual interests rather than focusing on that of the team and organization. 

One of the most powerful team-building / executive retreat / learning programs a team can go through is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  This amazing team building program is based on the best-selling book by the same title, by Patrick Lencioni.  As an organizational development consultant, I have facilitated many Five Dysfunctions of a Team Training Programs and have seen it work wonders in rebuilding team cohesivity and trust. 

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a powerful, meaningful lesson about team building and the hard work that it really takes to build an effective team.  The reality is there are not any “quick fixes” to help teams improve their relationships.  It takes trust, accountability, and commitment to take any team forward.

The Five Dysfunctions of the Team is a powerful leadership and team building program.  Designed to be completed in a day to two days, there are many powerful team building exercises that will help your team build a higher level of trust and negotiate conflict more effectively.   

Over the last several years, we have used The Five Dysfunctions of a Team as a leadership and team building program to help many management teams better work together as a cohesive team. 

In case you didn’t know or were wondering…  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team are…

• Absence of Trust
• Fear of Conflict
• Lack of Commitment
• Avoidance of Accountability
• Inattention to Results

Four suggestions to help make your Five Dysfunctions of a Team Training Program even more impactful…

Use an expert. We are experts in helping create the best possible experience. There is a rich opportunity to get “some things out on the table” during The Five Dysfunctions of a Team facilitated team building process. You need someone who is perceived to be impartial. We

We suggest smaller groups of less than twelve. The tighter the “team” – the better the results. Consider The Five Dysfunctions of a Team assessment to bring an unbiased view of your team's current situation. This assessment has been very popular with our clients. It’s a nice way to summarize where the “growth opportunities” are.

Use a high-quality DISC personality profile assessment to complement the team building program. The power of using a behavior profile instrument such as DISC is that many of our interpersonal challenges originate from the fact that we are behaviorally quite different from others. A high-end DISC profile assessment will help your team members understand how others behave and how they will interpret behavior.

Revisit The Five Dysfunctions of a Team learning process periodically throughout the following 12 months. The reason is simply – repetition is the motor of learning. We are “creatures of habit” and unfortunately, we will revert to old behaviors unless we are prompted to do otherwise.

If you have any questions that we can answer – please do not hesitate to call on us at 866-988-RAIN. We are here to help you Maximize Possibility.

~

Now go Maximize Possibility!

Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention.  Bring Chris in today!

1-866-988-RAIN

Copyright 2007, Chris Young - The Rainmaker Group, Inc.

Make Personal Accountability a Core Value

Few values matter more in shaping the future of a team and organization than Personal Accountability.

Without Personal Accountability, employee team members spend significant amounts of time playing the "blame game", procrastinating, and taking part in victim thinking. 

Personal Accountability must be a core value for your organization to succeed long-term. 

Not only must it be a core value of the team and organization, Personal Accountability must also be an attribute or skill each individual employee team member possesses. 

The symptoms of low or no Personal Accountability include:

Asking questions that begin with the following:

Why - "Why questions" are "victim thinking questions".  Victim thinking is the result when one spends time asking questions like "Why does this happen to me?"

When - "When questions" are "procrastination questions".  The result is action is deferred until a later time.  Perhaps action will never occur.

Who - "Who questions" are "blame questions".  The result of asking "blame questions" is employee team members are seeking to shift blame on to others.

The key is to make questions that begin with these words taboo in the organization.  When you change the language of the team, you change the mindset and culture.

We have helped teams and organizations transform their culture over the last decade through a powerful Personal Accountability training program called - QBQ - The Question Behind the Question.  The QBQ Personal Accountability Training Program is powerfully-simple and easily trained.  We often certify organizations to deliver their own Personal Accountability training. 

To learn more about the QBQ Personal Accountability training program, give us a call today or visit our website to learn more.

Corporate Cultural Change, Leadership, and "Viewpoints"

Why do some companies do well long-term with the founding CEO while others flounder?

Why do some organizations have significant difficulty adapting to change?

A Rice University study suggests that placing a CEO who grew up with the company is a "safer bet" over the long-term than bringing in an outsider.  What are the secret ingredients to short and long-term leadership success?

I believe a key "secret ingredient" includes the ability of the culture to adapt.

In today's ever-changing world, it is imperative that organizations have the ability to adapt to changes as quickly as possible.  Few organizations have the ability to adapt to change quickly.

Some organizations have a corporate culture that is more adaptive in nature while others have a more rigid, non-adaptive culture.  The source of the ability to adapt may be found through the leadership competency of top leader(s) of the organization in combination with their "viewpoint". 

Strategic and leadership "viewpoints" fascinate me.  Some organizations are quite strategic, visionary, and focused on the Customer.  These "adaptive" organizations are led by strategic and visionary leaders.  Other organizations do not adapt and are not particular "visionary". 

The reality is that all problems start at the head - the effectiveness of the leadership of the organization sets the strategic tone and cultural adaptability of everyone that reports to them.

A Definition - Inside View vs Outside View

In his book "Think Twice" (2009) by Michael J. Mauboussin, the "inside view" considers a problem "by focusing on the specific task and by using information that is close at hand, and makes predictions based on that narrow and unique set of inputs."  The "outside view" asks if there are "similar situations that can provide a statistical basis for making a decision.  Rather than seeing a problem as unique, the outside view wants to know if others have faced comparable problems and, if so, what happened."

Key Cultural Transformation Message - Successful organizations that demonstrate a long-term ability to adapt to change demonstrate the ability to strategically maintain an "outside view". 

Maintaining an "outside view" as a culture element is a strategic cultural choice.  This choice is set and modeled by top leadership.

From a corporate culture perspective, Kotter and Heskett share their research in their excellent book, "Corporate Culture and Performance" (1992).  They argue and their research suggests that competent leaders who create cultural change have an "outsider's perspective" AND "insider's resources". 

Kotter and Heskett describe the "outsider's perspective" as an "unconventional" perspective with a "broader view" as well as "greater emotional detachment" that often does not necessarily come those who have grown their careers with the organization.  Yet evidence suggests that companies that "grow their own" often do better over the long-term. 

Kotter and Heskett suggest that the larger the organization, the greater the CEO's need for "insider's resources" - insider background, relationships, and power-base.  The "unconventional insider" is perhaps the ultimate combination of "outsider's perspective" and "insider's resources" identified by Kotter and Heskett.

From my research and experience, organizations often have one of the above - effective leadership, strong outsider's perspective, or strong insider's resources. It is rare that any one leader has has all three.  When all three are present, the results can be quite significant.  When the organization has an "unconventional insider" (ie: Jack Welch), the potential is incredible. 

Key Culture Transformation Questions For You

• What are you doing to develop your future leadership to have the "inside view" and the "outside view"?
• Do your leaders effective leadership abilties as well as the "outsider's perspective" AND "insider's resources"?
• Are you identifying future "unconventional insider" leaders?
• What is your organization's culture?
• Are you shaping your culture purposefully?

Now go Maximize Possibility!

Other posts you may be interested in:

• Startups and Culture Shaping
• "Hey!  I Want my $200K Back!"  The High Cost of Hiring Mistakes
• Hiring the Best Sales People
• How Poorly Fit Team Members Pose as High Performers
• Are You Hiring Candidates or Selecting Them?  There is a BIG Difference!

Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention.  

1-866-988-RAIN

What Are Values and Why Do They Matter?

What are values?

In a nutshell, human values are the "rules" that people follow to make decisions in life.  Values in conjunction with beliefs generate behaviors.

Organizational values are a collection of individual values.  As a group of employee team members comes together to do a job, the group's values become an aggregate of the individual values.  These values are expressed through the type of and how the work gets done. 

Organizations have subsets of "aggregate values" that are reflected by department, team, and ultimately the individual.

A particular job may be better performed by an employee team member with Values that are suited to do that particular job well.  A case in point, sales people generally pursue financial reward.  Sales people with lower desire to make money may not perform as well as those with a higher "Utilitarian Value". 

Why do values matter? 

As stated previously, values in conjunction with beliefs generate behaviors.

There is signficant research that clearly demonstrates the connection between financial performance and the alignment of an organization's values and their employee team members' personal values.  Our research strongly suggests that when an employee team member's values are in alignment with the values necessary to do the job well (Job Match), maximized performance is often the result.

Key values questions to consider...

• What are your team's and/or organization's values?
• Are your the values of your team and/or organization stated or demonstrated (or both)?

Now go Maximize Possibility!

Other posts you may be interested in:

• "Hey!  I Want my $200K Back!"  The High Cost of Hiring Mistakes
• Hiring the Best Sales People
• How Poorly Fit Team Members Pose as High Performers
• Are You Hiring Candidates or Selecting Them?  There is a BIG Difference!

Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention.  

1-866-988-RAIN