Exception is a Poor Rule

On June 11, 2013   /   Corporate Culture   /   Leave a comment
By: Jim Clemmer

Jim Clemmer is an international keynote speaker, workshop leader, author, and president of The CLEMMER Group, a North American network of organization, team, and personal improvement consultants based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. His other bestsellers include Firing on All Cylinders: The Service/Quality System for High-Powered Corporate Performance, and his most recent book, Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/

I once met an executive who proudly described his approach to recognizing employees’ work as “management by exception.”

“If you haven’t heard from me, that’s a good sign,” he explained. “That means I think you’re doing just fine. I only deal with the exceptions. I look for problems and people that need correcting. Those are what I jump on.”

This is one of three common approaches I see managers take in recognizing people. Unfortunately, variations on management by exception are also the leading causes of the demoralization and fear rampant in many organizations.

This approach makes people feel criticized, then ignored, unappreciated and used. They feel like pieces of equipment or just so many assets with skin wrapped around them.

Organization consultant John Scherer calls the approach “gap-zap.” When things are going well, nothing is said – we leave a gap. When things get off track or there’s a problem, we zap our employees.

That same approach is damaging in personal life. The manager who bragged about his use of management by exception also talked about his failed first marriage. “What really drove me crazy were her constant complaints that I never told her I loved her,” he complained.

“I married her didn’t I? Obviously, I loved her. Why did I need to keep saying it then?”

The second widespread approach to recognition is flattery and manipulation. This form of so-called praise does more harm than good, because it is obviously designed to control and dominate.

On a personal level, it is reflected in the overblown style of managers who “lay it on thick.” The compliments are usually out of proportion to the deed or person they’re addressing. (“We could never survive without your contributions.”) Or the phony flattery is vague and general. (“You do great work.”)

Many managers have built extensive recognition programs and practices around this approach. They hand out prizes, awards and “atta boy” comments like they reward the family dog with a biscuit and a pat on the head. One company actually handed out stickers, plaques and merchandise as part of their “Atta Boy/Girl” program of recognition.

The third, more valuable approach is sincere recognition and genuine appreciation – the kind that we all thrive on. It reflects the beliefs of 19th century American philosopher William James, who once wrote: “The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

Some managers think a sense of accomplishment is enough reward for high performance. But it feels even better when other people notice and appreciate what we’ve done. Recognition continually shows up near the top of lists of motivational factors. It is a big source of the fun and excitement so vital to improving performance continually.

Effective leaders use a lot of ways to build an atmosphere of accomplishment and pride through recognition and appreciation. But the leaders should not be the central figures in control of the goodies. They should encourage recognition and appreciation up, down and across the organization and within and among teams.

As I compare organizations, it becomes clear that the high-performance cultures are those that radiate sincere recognition. It’s also clear that they’re led by managers with well-developed personal recognition skills. They know that brains and hearts go where they are truly appreciated.
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6 Components of a Great Corporate Culture

On June 11, 2013   /   Corporate Culture   /   Leave a comment

The benefits of a strong corporate culture are both intuitive and supported by social science. According to James L. Heskett, culture “can account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance when compared with ‘culturally unremarkable’ competitors.” And HBR writers have offered advice on navigating different geographic cultures, selecting jobs based on culture, changing cultures, and offering feedback across cultures, among other topics.

But what makes a culture? Each culture is unique and myriad factors go into creating one, but I’ve observed at least six common components of great cultures. Isolating those elements can be the first step to building a differentiated culture and a lasting organization.

1. Vision: A great culture starts with a vision or mission statement. These simple turns of phrase guide a company’s values and provide it with purpose. That purpose, in turn, orients every decision employees make. When they are deeply authentic and prominently displayed, good vision statements can even help orient customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Nonprofits often excel at having compelling, simple vision statements. The Alzheimer’s Association, for example, is dedicated to “a world without Alzheimer’s.” And Oxfam envisions “a just world without poverty.” A vision statement is a simple but foundational element of culture.

2. Values: A company’s values are the core of its culture. While a vision articulates a company’s purpose, values offer a set of guidelines on the behaviors and mindsets needed to achieve that vision. McKinsey & Company, for example, has a clearly articulated set of values that are prominently communicated to all employees and involve the way that firm vows to serve clients, treat colleagues, and uphold professional standards. Google’s values might be best articulated by their famous phrase, “Don’t be evil.” But they are also enshrined in their “ten things we know to be true.” And while many companies find their values revolve around a few simple topics (employees, clients, professionalism, etc.), the originality of those values is less important than their authenticity.

3. Practices: Of course, values are of little importance unless they are enshrined in a company’s practices. If an organization professes, “people are our greatest asset,” it should also be ready to invest in people in visible ways. Wegman’s, for example, heralds values like “caring” and “respect,” promising prospects “a job [they’ll] love.” And it follows through in its company practices, ranked by Fortune as the fifth best company to work for. Similarly, if an organization values “flat” hierarchy, it must encourage more junior team members to dissent in discussions without fear or negative repercussions. And whatever an organization’s values, they must be reinforced in review criteria and promotion policies, and baked into the operating principles of daily life in the firm.

4. People: No company can build a coherent culture without people who either share its core values or possess the willingness and ability to embrace those values. That’s why the greatest firms in the world also have some of the most stringent recruiting policies. According to Charles Ellis, as noted in a recent review of his book What it Takes: Seven Secrets of Success from the World’s Greatest Professional Firms, the best firms are “fanatical about recruiting new employees who are not just the most talented but also the best suited to a particular corporate culture.” Ellis highlights that those firms often have 8-20 people interview each candidate. And as an added benefit, Steven Hunt notes at Monster.com that one study found applicants who were a cultural fit would accept a 7% lower salary, and departments with cultural alignment had 30% less turnover. People stick with cultures they like, and bringing on the right “culture carriers” reinforces the culture an organization already has.

5. Narrative: Marshall Ganz was once a key part of Caesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers movement and helped structure the organizing platform for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Now a professor at Harvard, one of Ganz’s core areas of research and teaching is the power of narrative. Any organization has a unique history — a unique story. And the ability to unearth that history and craft it into a narrative is a core element of culture creation. The elements of that narrative can be formal — like Coca-Cola, which dedicated an enormous resource to celebrating its heritage and even has a World of Coke museum in Atlanta — or informal, like those stories about how Steve Jobs’ early fascination with calligraphy shaped the aesthetically oriented culture at Apple. But they are more powerful when identified, shaped, and retold as a part of a firm’s ongoing culture.

6. Place: Why does Pixar have a huge open atrium engineering an environment where firm members run into each other throughout the day and interact in informal, unplanned ways? Why does Mayor Michael Bloomberg prefer his staff sit in a “bullpen” environment, rather than one of separate offices with soundproof doors? And why do tech firms cluster in Silicon Valley and financial firms cluster in London and New York? There are obviously numerous answers to each of these questions, but one clear answer is that place shapes culture. Open architecture is more conducive to certain office behaviors, like collaboration. Certain cities and countries have local cultures that may reinforce or contradict the culture a firm is trying to create. Place — whether geography, architecture, or aesthetic design — impacts the values and behaviors of people in a workplace.

There are other factors that influence culture. But these six components can provide a firm foundation for shaping a new organization’s culture. And identifying and understanding them more fully in an existing organization can be the first step to revitalizing or reshaping culture in a company looking for change.

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10 Reasons to Design a Better Corporate Culture

On June 11, 2013   /   Corporate Culture   /   Leave a comment

Organizations with strong, adaptive cultures enjoy labor cost advantages, great employee and customer loyalty, and a smoother on-ramp in leadership succession. A book excerpt from The Ownership Quotient: Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage by HBS professors Jim Heskett and W. Earl Sasser and coauthor Joe Wheeler. Key concepts include:

  • Organizations with clearly codified cultures often become better places to work.
  • An operating strategy based on a sturdy, effective culture is selective of prospective customers.
  • High-performing organizations periodically revisit and reaffirm their core values and associated behaviors.

by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Joe Wheeler

Editor’s Note— Why is it that many of the same companies appear repeatedly on lists of the best places to work, the best providers of customer service, and the most profitable in their industries? In their new book, The Ownership Quotient, HBS professors Jim Heskett and Earl Sasser and coauthor Joe Wheeler assert the answer lies in recognizing that strong, adaptive cultures can foster innovation, productivity, and a sense of ownership among employees and customers. They also outlast any individual charismatic leader.

But how can you as a manager create and nurture that special culture? In the following excerpt, the authors outline the top 10 lessons of the best practitioners, from ING Direct to Build-A-Bear Workshop to Harrah’s Entertainment.

We can learn a great deal from organizations whose strong and adaptive ownership cultures give them a powerful competitive edge. Here are our top 10 lessons.

  1. Leadership is critical in codifying and maintaining an organizational purpose, values, and vision. Leaders must set the example by living the elements of culture: values, behaviors, measures, and actions. Values are meaningless without the other elements.
  2. Like anything worthwhile, culture is something in which you invest. An organization’s norms and values aren’t formed through speeches but through actions and team learning. Strong cultures have teeth. They are much more than slogans and empty promises. Some organizations choose to part ways with those who do not manage according to the values and behaviors that other employees embrace. Others accomplish the same objective more positively. At Baptist Health Care, for example, managers constantly reinforce the culture by recognizing those whose actions exemplify its values, its behaviors, and its standards. Team successes are cause for frequent celebrations. In addition, BHC rewards individual accomplishments through such things as “WOW (Workers becoming Owners and Winners) Super Service Certificates,” appreciation cards for 90-day employees that list their contributions to their team, one-year appreciation awards, multiyear service awards, employee of the month awards, and recognition of workers as “Champions” or “Legends” for extraordinary achievements or service. Managers at all levels offer frequent informal recognition and send handwritten thank-you notes (which stand out in the age of e-mail). Those who aren’t living up to BHC’s values soon get the point.
  3. Employees at all levels in an organization notice and validate the elements of culture. As owners, they judge every management decision to hire, reward, promote, and fire colleagues. Their reactions often come through in comments about subjects such as the “fairness of my boss.” The underlying theme in such conversations, though, is the strength and appropriateness of the organization’s culture.
  4. Organizations with clearly codified cultures enjoy labor cost advantages for the following reasons:– They often become better places to work.
    — They become well known among prospective employees.
    — The level of ownership—referral rates and ideas for improving the business of existing employees—is often high.
    — The screening process is simplified, because employees tend to refer acquaintances who behave like them.
    — The pool of prospective employees grows.
    — The cost of selecting among many applicants is offset by cost savings as prospective employees sort themselves into and out of consideration for jobs.
    — This self-selection process reduces the number of mismatches among new hires.
  5. Organizations with clearly codified and enforced cultures enjoy great employee and customer loyalty, in large part because they are effective in either altering ineffective behaviors or disengaging from values-challenged employees in a timely manner.
  6. An operating strategy based on a strong, effective culture is selective of prospective customers. It also requires the periodic “firing” of customers, as pointed out in our examples of companies like ING Direct, where thousands are fired every month. This strategy is especially important when customers “abuse” employees or make unreasonable demands on them.
  7. The result of all this is “the best serving the best,” or as Ritz-Carlton’s mission states, “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
  8. This self-reinforcing source of operating leverage must be managed carefully to make sure that it does not result in the development of dogmatic cults with little capacity for change. High-performing organizations periodically revisit and reaffirm their core values and associated behaviors. Further, they often subscribe to some kind of initiative that requires constant benchmarking and searching for best practices both inside and outside the organization. For example, at Baptist Health Care, all employees are expected and encouraged “to search until they find ‘the best of the best’ in their area of expertise and benchmark against them (and possibly emulate them).” 1
  9. Organizations with strong and adaptive cultures foster effective succession in the leadership ranks. In large part, the culture both prepares successors and eases the transition.
  10. Cultures can sour. Among the reasons for this are success itself, the loss of curiosity and interest in change, the triumph of culture over performance, the failure of leaders to reinforce desired behaviors, the breakdown of consistent communication, and leaders who are overcome by their own sense of importance.

We have learned repeatedly that there is a pattern in the actions and activities involved in developing strong and adaptive ownership cultures. When an organization consistently builds and reinforces such a culture, it creates a competitive edge that is hard to replicate.

Excerpted with the permission of Harvard Business Press from The Ownership Quotient: Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage. Copyright 2008 Harvard Business Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

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The Profit Power of Corporate Culture

On June 11, 2013   /   Corporate Culture   /   Leave a comment

In the new book The Culture Cycle, Professor Emeritus James L. Heskett demonstrates that developing the right corporate culture helps companies be more profitable and provides sustainable competitive advantage.

by Sean Silverthorne

Corporate culture is often thought of as a hard-to-define, or soft concept in management circles. Soft not in the sense that it isn’t important—most CEOs will tell you that their ability to inculcate values and mission into the DNA of a firm is among the most important work they do.

No, the problem arises because little research has been targeted at trying to quantify its importance on performance. In his new book, The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance, HBS Professor Emeritus James L. Heskett attempts just that. “Organization culture is not a soft concept,” he says. “Its impact on profit can be measured and quantified.”

Heskett finds that as much as half of the difference in operating profit between organizations can be attributed to effective cultures. Why? “We know, for example, that engaged managers and employees are much more likely to remain in an organization, leading directly to fewer hires from outside the organization,” Heskett writes in the book. “This, in turn, results in lower wage costs for talent; lower recruiting, hiring, and training costs; and higher productivity (fewer lost sales and higher sales per employee). Higher employee continuity leads to better customer relationships that contribute to greater customer loyalty, lower marketing costs, and enhanced sales.”

Whatever it is and whatever its benefits, a recent survey showed that many American companies do a poor job of creating effective cultures. A 2010 Conference Board study revealed that only 45 percent of US workers were satisfied with their jobs—the lowest level in the history of the survey. Our Q&A with Heskett begins with that dour figure.

Sean Silverthorne: Why are workers experiencing less job satisfaction?

A: Jim Heskett: One can only speculate on the sources of low job satisfaction. It could be a product of unmet expectations, possibly due to inadequate attention by firms to hiring, training, and subsequent management. Those entering the workforce in the past 10 years or so may have had unrealistic expectations regarding things such as opportunities for personal development, frequent and timely feedback, and advancement, especially in organizations that are contracting rather than expanding. It could be a product of the fear of job loss even for those still holding employment. And of course, real wages have not been increasing, although compensation often falls rather low on the list of things that employees seek out of the employment “deal.”

Q: What is the culture cycle?

A: The culture cycle begins with the establishment and communication of shared values and behaviors, and includes:

  • the careful selection of employees who are believers in these values and in establishing “how we do things around here”;
  • the development of realistic expectations in the minds of new employees and meeting them in ways that establish trust, engagement, and “ownership,” which are the foundations for the successful implementation of whatever policies and practices are necessary to execute a given strategy;
  • policies and practices that lead to a learning, innovative organization;
  • measurement of the results in terms of things such as employee retention and referrals, returns to labor, and relationships with customers (producing loyalty and customer “ownership”) as well as innovation and financial performance.

If the organization doesn’t measure up on these dimensions over some extended period, it may be necessary to review shared values and behaviors as part of an effort to change the culture. This sounds like a lot, but the culture cycle provides a foundation for the creation of an organization capable of setting high goals and meeting them.

Q: Your research produces an eye-opening number, that as much as half of the difference in operating profit between organizations can be attributed to effective cultures. Why is this true-how does culture affect the bottom line?

A: The point is that organization culture is not a soft concept. Its impact on profit can be measured and quantified. And in organizations with large numbers of customer-facing employees, the sum of the effects of employee turnover, referrals of potential employees by existing ones, productivity, customer loyalty, and referrals of new customers attributable to culture can add up to half of the difference in operating income between organizations in the same business.

Current and former CEOs such as Lou Gerstner (HBS MBA ’65) and Sam Palmisano (IBM), Ken Iverson (Nucor), Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com), and Scott Cook (HBS MBA ’76) (Intuit) who believe strongly in the importance of culture have been hinting at this, so I went out into the field and collected data that demonstrate it.

Q: You mention Scott Cook. He once told me that on his first day as cofounder of his new two-person company, Intuit, he started by writing an employee handbook. Your work would seem to confirm the rightness of that decision, that culture develops in the start-up phase and is difficult to change after that. How should entrepreneurs starting a company approach creating a culture?

“Cultures develop with or without conscious effort”

A: Cultures develop with or without conscious effort. They generally reflect the beliefs and behaviors of the founder of the organization and are often not codified until some years later after the success of the start-up.”

More founders would be advised to emulate Scott in giving thought to the kinds of cultures they are trying to create. As I point out in the book, “The task of nurturing and changing culture is an important responsibility of the CEO; it has to be led from the top. If you don’t believe it, don’t do it. Let the culture shape itself. It will represent just one more ‘unknown’ to deal with, albeit an important one.”

Q: Business is becoming more global, certainly. What are the cultural challenges faced by firms with global operations, and how can these challenges be overcome?

A: The basic question to be faced is whether the organization will be run as “one company” with a common set of values, such as at Mexican-based cement and concrete producer CEMEX; as a “multilocal” culture, such as at Danish-based facility services provider ISS; or as some combination of the two—typically in a holding company like US-based marketing services provider Omnicom with a number of subsidiaries, each with its own culture.

A one company culture may be appropriate in a single company selling products of a relatively uniform, low customer involvement nature where it is important to move people of different backgrounds and nationalities around the world as part of their development. In contrast, high involvement products or services such as marketing services have to be delivered by organizations that adapt themselves to local needs and cultures. If good managers are to be moved around the world as part of a “one company” strategy, they have to be hired with that in mind and provided with training in language and customers, time to become acclimated to new environments, and support for their families as well.

Q: How can a CEO spot a dysfunctional or at least disintegrating culture? What should be the first steps to fixing the problem?

A: A CEO in this situation should be tracking and managing by the numbers—the nonfinancial numbers. By the time financial results turn downward, it is far too late to act. Financial numbers measure the past and lead to “rearview mirror management.”

The numbers that predict the future are the Four Rs-employee retention and referrals, returns to labor (productivity), and relationships with customers (exhibited by loyalty and ownership behaviors such as referrals)—as well as measures that track innovation. Once these numbers start to turn downward, it’s time to reexamine organization values and behaviors, hiring practices, and other elements of the culture cycle.

Read an excerpt from The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance

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Is Your Corporate Culture Creating Cows?

On June 11, 2013   /   Corporate Culture, Leadership   /   Leave a comment

CorpCulture-CowsIs your business environment driving innovation and creativity – or numbness and passivity?

CEOs and executive managers understand that today’s rapidly changing global marketplace puts pressure on businesses to become increasingly innovative in order to compete. New products and new ideas are constantly needed to gain that competitive edge.

Organizations need ideas. But who produces those really great ones? Dean Keith Simonton investigated more than 2,000 scientists and discovered that the most respected scientists were more productive than those scientists who did not have as prized reputations. Is that any surprise to any of us? The most respected scientists, however, while having more good ideas and successful projects, also had more poor ideas and failures. Michael Michalko, an expert on genius and creativity, refers to this in his book, Cracking Creativity, as “Geniuses produce. Period.” They produce-both good and bad.

An example of an idea generator is Thomas Edison. He was an incredible genius, but he also had a remarkable number of inventive failures. Another person with many successes was William Shakespeare. Although `many of his plays and sonnets are masterpieces, many others are studied in schools and universities as examples of what not to do.

So what’s the link between Edison and business today? It’s simple-organizations today need innovation and creativity to remain competitive. This means that they need ideas-lots of them. Out of this abundance, some ideas will be successful and some won’t. But in order to grasp those that will possibly financially benefit an organization, all sorts of ideas need to be generated. So, does the declaration, “An idea every minute and every idea a great idea!” help or hinder idea generation?

Unfortunately, this message implies that each idea has to be a winner-that each idea has to be fully formed and complete. Great ideas die before they are formed when we send out the message that we will be happy only when presented with finished, successful products. Unintentionally, we all-at one time or another-unconsciously send out the message, “If you don’t produce, you are fired (or stupid, inadequate, uncreative, or a poor performer)!” And that suppresses and ultimately kills creativity as surely as if we had bound the eyes, mouths, and hands of every creative person in our work force.

In order to encourage creativity, we need to systematically create workplaces that make it safe for individuals to come up with “dumb” or “crazy” ideas, and we need to help other individuals build on those crazy ideas. Organizations need to generate a plethora of ideas, then select those that seem most promising, and go forward with them. But they also need to revisit those ideas that were rejected in the past in order to see if new insight is sparked by a forgotten idea. After all, sometimes those rejected ideas are the ones that are most successful-when they are picked up by the competition.

Remember, the individual who is dissenting is often giving voice to the opinions of many others who are not as comfortable speaking up. So the way you treat this person will be carefully observed. If you embrace the dissent and engage fully, you are likely to see more of this behavior in others eventually. But if you cut the person off and make it clear that dissent is not tolerated, you will produce the opposite outcome.

Encourage Frank Discussion

Many leaders feel they are being paid to be decisive and to lead, not to discuss. They are not comfortable in the role of a discussion “facilitator.” They would rather hear a few opinions of others, then make a decision. And the reality is that often the leader’s decision is the right one.

One of the reasons they have been placed in a position of leadership is that they have been right more often than they have been wrong. Business leaders are typically bright, competent and dedicated to doing what is best for their organizations. So they can be forgiven if they sometimes tend to lean a little too heavily on their own council.

But over time, a leader who does not cultivate a culture of open discussion and dialogue within his organizations will tend to become more and more myopic in his thinking. As he or she gets wrapped in the leadership “cocoon” that filters information coming in, the business instincts that served so well in the past can veer off track.

So encouraging frank discussion can help to ensure that you are always hearing the authentic thoughts and opinions of those around you.

Ask Provocative Questions

One way for a leader to “prime the pump” and drive an organization toward more frank and candid discussions is to ask questions that provoke a truly engaged response. Not obvious questions where the “right” answer is clear, but subtle, nuanced questions that force people to think. Be sure to avoid telegraphing your own thoughts or opinions when you ask these questions, and don’t let anyone hide out.

If you have someone who tends to speak up consistently. let this person know how much you appreciate their opinion, then ask them to hold back in order to force others to step up.

Reward Dissent / Punish “Yes People”

Ultimately you will see more of the behavior you reward, and less of the behavior you “punish.” So find ways to reward those who are speaking up. Let the organization know why you are rewarding them. Make it clear that one of your top values as a leader is open, authentic dialogue. And be patient – some will believe you and respond right away. Others will take longer to be convinced. And some will never be comfortable sharing their genuine thoughts in an open forum. For those people you may need to schedule one-on-one time to get to their true thoughts.

And if you eventually determine that an individual cannot make the transition, then you need to help to move them on to a career somewhere else. This will send a powerful signal to everyone in your organization that open dialogue isn’t just desired, it is a critical part of your corporate culture.

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Its Easier to Give Birth than to Raise the Dead

On June 11, 2013   /   Corporate Culture   /   Leave a comment

give-birth-1

Can You Really Change a Deeply Ingrained Business Culture?

It is interesting to hear management consultants talk about changing corporate culture, as if it was a simple matter of communicating the desired change, defining expectations clearly, encouraging early adopters and rewarding success. Of course all of those things are important and can certainly help. But they are not enough to drive significant cultural change.

Individual human beings are complex. Small groups of people (families, sports teams, work groups) are exponentially more complicated. And large organizations? They are profoundly Byzantine and opaque.

Think for a moment about how culture change occurs in the real world, with a relatively simple situation such as a small family. With all of the interpersonal dynamics at play, truly changing the culture of a small family requires tremendous, multilayered engagement and long-term commitment from everyone involved. This isn’t meant to discourage you if you have embarked on a corporate culture change initiative, or are about to.

But you are much more likely to be successful of you face the hard cold truth. Deep cultural change for any group of people is going to be very, very challenging.

If you build on the experience of the few organizations that have been effective driving deep corporate culture change, there are a few key steps you should take to improve your potential for a successful outcome.

Know Exactly Where You are Starting

If you were to ask ten people in your organization to define the corporate culture, you would almost certainly get ten different answers. And if those people ranged from the executive suite all the way to the front lines of customer service, including representatives from operations, accounting, marketing and sales, you might very well get ten unique and contradictory descriptions.

So how do you change a culture that is not clearly defined, and possible perceived in many different ways by a broad range of individuals – all with different motivations, priorities, personalities and limitations? You can’t. So you have to start with a clear, complete, mutual and AUTHENTIC understanding of how everyone within the organization perceives the current culture.

You can begin with a corporate culture assessment designed to give everyone within your organization an opportunity to provide confidential feedback. Once you receive the results, the most important thing is to accept that perception is reality when it comes to culture. Even if senior leaders are scrupulously honest, if a segment of employees perceives senior leaders to be ethically challenged, then this is the existing culture – perception is reality. This doesn’t mean you can’t change the perception, but you have to start with accepting the existing “reality.”

Clearly Define Where You Want to Go

Your initial assessment of the culture within your organization should yield enough information to drive many robust conversations and diverse opinions regarding the most effective course of action. Involve a broad range of individuals in the process of deciding where and how to change your corporate culture. Remember that the process of deciding where and how to change is part of the change.

Most successful businesses have a bias for quick action, but in this situation the more effective route may be the slower, longer path. Don’t treat this like a product launch where the goal is to get to market quickly and make iterative changes based upon early customer feedback. Because with a corporate change initiative, if it isn’t thought through clearly, and if everyone doesn’t have a “voice” in the chosen direction, you can end up doing more harm than good.

Take Baby Steps – Teeny, Tiny Baby Steps

If you have executed a deep, thorough corporate culture assessment, and have spent a significant amount of time analyzing the results and having numerous discussions at every level of the organization, it would be common to end up with a fairly lengthy list of desired changes.

Select just a few initiatives, focusing on those that will be relatively easy to execute and implement successfully. It is imperative that the organization sees some early success once you actually launch the change initiative.

For example, if one f your objectives is to clarify communication of the company’s financial progress to all employees at regular intervals throughout the year, make sure you have actually achieved this result before moving on to more complex issues.

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How to Handle Behavioral Interview Questions

On April 16, 2013   /   Corporate Culture, Job Search Strategies   /   Leave a comment

Most interviewers have been coached to focus on behavioral interview questions designed to dig deeper and reveal more about the job candidate.žThe interviewer is typically looking for specific competencies, and asks (ideally, non-obvious) questions to assess those competencies (or lack thereof). “Tell me about a time when you were under pressure a great deal of pressure at work,” would be an example. You may think the interviewer is looking for insight into how you handle workplace stress, which may be true. But the interviewer may instead be looking for other things such as:

  • When under stress how effective are your problem solving skills?
  • Are you more frustrated by people, situations or systems?
  • Do you do you tend to blame others, or hold yourself primarily accountable?

Read more →

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Was Your Last Job Interview a Disaster?

On April 9, 2013   /   Corporate Culture   /   Leave a comment

It has happened to every one of us. We go in to a job interview with high hopes, visions of our ‘dream job’ and confidence in our capabilities – and come out crushed, embarrassed, defeated and depressed. If this happens to you, there are five questions you need to immediately ask yourself in order to prevent a single bad interview from snowballing into a series of unproductive encounters. Here are the questions along with a few thoughts about how to keep yourself in a positive and productive frame of mind even after a tough interview. Read more →

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