TRANSFORMING CULTURE TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
If your organization has any of the following symptoms, you need a cultural transformation
Low levels of staff engagement - this can be caused by several things, but underlying it is evidence that your values are perceived as meaningless.
Cynicism and snide comments - If your organization is full of cynicism and snide remarks, this is evidence that your staff do not have a vision they can buy in to.
Low productivity – Your staff do not have any goals, or do not buy in to them. You have allowed a culture to develop that revolves around slackness. By the way, new staff are learning this culture when they join your team.
Destructive levels of staff conflict – you have no clear rules of engagement. Some conflict and difference of opinion is good. But too much is just plain dysfunctional.
High levels of customer complaints, poor punctuality, unacceptable absenteeism – these come from having no agreed service standards.
If you have these symptoms and you think you have the right things in place and the symptoms persist, it is evidence that either you have not transformed the culture, or you have allowed a culture to develop that is somehow subtly rewarding the wrong behaviours.
So let’s transform the culture.
Dramatic productivity improvements are standard for our clients who implement the following steps. Every organization we have seen implement this programme has had a significant and sustained return on investment by dealing with all the above symptoms in one sweep.
How is this done? Follow these simple steps:
1. Establish meaningful values - Ensure that everyone knows what these values are, and how they impact work. Values should not be meaningless or you will increase staff and client scepticism. Rather, your values should be a living breathing underpinning of how team members treat each other, how they work and what customers see of your organization.
2. Articulate clear vision – If the vision does not make your team’s hearts beat faster, it is either ineffectual or cheesy. By definition, vision must be something that inspires your staff.
3. Set challenging goals – let your team work together on this. You will usually be surprised how high they set the goals. This is much more effective than trying to impose them
4. Have clear rules of engagement – how should people treat each other? Examine past conflicts and look at how clear rules of engagement could have taken the destructive edge off conflict.
5. Set service standards – what are your standards on punctuality? Honesty about sick leave? Returning messages? Work together with your staff – you will be amazed at how high they set these standards once they are inspired by the vision.
Need help with this? Call us. Let’s fix the problem once and for all.
You have no idea how much potential is still locked up in your team, waiting to be unleashed
I first
said that statement to a client in 1996 when I saw how large the gap was between his staff’s abilities and their performance. The gap was widening due to low morale and organizational conflict, both leading to lack of people engagement. We worked with that client and the results were spectacular.
Coming out of a recession can make a lot of your staff feel bruised, overworked, undervalued and
disengaged. (Maybe you feel that way too). Many experts are predicting that good staff are going to exit companies over the next year now that the option of finding a new job is coming back. You do not want to lose your good people. In fact, you need them to be engaged, motivated and committed to your organization more than ever before. Here are some simple tips for seeing that happen:
1. CREATE A COMPELLING VISION
By definition, a vision must be something that makes their hearts beat faster. It is something worth fighting and sweating for. If you don’t have a compelling vision, or you haven’t been able to articulate it, don’t expect your staff to perform at their best.
2. INVEST IN YOUR PEOPLE
Especially after the recession where they may be feeling battered and bruised. Invest in robust and inspirational staff training that not only lifts their capacities, but more importantly, makes them feel valued. If it does not make them feel valued, it is the wrong training. Or it could be the right training badly delivered.
3. LET THEM SET HIGH STANDARDS
High standards are not about pulling creating a stressful environment where everyone has to continually strain harder till they are exhausted. If you inspire your staff with the vision, and consult them on what you need to achieve, they will come up with ways to set and achieve higher standards. And they will feel better about it because they did it themselves.
If you need help to do this, call us. We would love to work with you to add real value to maximize your human engagement, and hence add real value to your bottom line.
Rediscovering Fulfillment and Maintaining Momentum
Have you ever had the experience where you get the job you dreamed about and worked so hard for, and then over time, lose that spark?
Over and over again, we have clients tell us that they are bored with their jobs – even after years of study and goal setting.
How do we help them re-ignite their passion? We give them some principles that we find work for people in all walks of life. For instance:
- Understand the value you add. This means not just the service you sell/deliver, but what does it do for people? Yes, it allows us to rediscover our passion (or ignite it for the first time) when we really stop and think about what we are doing and the contribution that makes to the world - and the privilege it is to be the one making it. For instance a mortgage broker is not just selling financial services; they are helping hundreds of ordinary families realize their dream of owning a home to bring up their families. A travel agent is helping thousands of people build up a “bank account” of wonderful memories that will keep them going in the tough times. We told a Doctor friend to find what it is that he really does for people. How did he go about this? We told him to look in the eyes of his patients and see the fear turn to hope and gratitude after he has seen them.
- Go the extra mile: Once you understand what you really do that delivers such compelling value to people, and then do it well. Begrudging minimal service always has one major result. The customer may or may not be unhappy – but the people delivering begrudging service will ALWAYS end up unhappy. Why? Because it violates one of the principles of the universe. And that principle is that by going the extra mile to make others happy/satisfied/glad they bought off us, you will AUTOMATICALLY get more fulfillment from your work.
- Commit to see it through: Once you have decided this is the path/job/relationship for you. It is very hard to get passionate about anything (a job or a marriage for instance) if in the back of our minds we are exploring exit strategies. True passion comes from saying; “this is the path I have chosen, I am going to stay at my post and create extra mile value for everyone whose lives I come into contact with.” It is always easier to stop for a doughnut rather than do another lap. But stopping/quitting becomes habit forming. If this is the path for you, commit to seeing it through – and you will automatically raise your level of fulfillment.
- Develop the habit of gratitude. But what if I have problems in my job? Some really tough office politics, demanding customers, financial tough times…Welcome to life! Everyone is struggling with something. So how do we see past the problems? Pause and think - remember that the worst day in your job is still better than the best day in the jobs of millions of people - that helps maintain both passion and gratitude. The single greatest sapper of fulfillment in life is that we all find it easier to stock-take our grievances rather than count our blessings. The good news is that like quitting, being grateful is habit forming. This is a fantastic habit to form.
If you situation is tough – the principles are still true – but it will take more courage for you to apply them.
Put these four principles into practice – and I promise you, you will rediscover seriously good reasons to get up in the morning.
MAKING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION SUCCESSFUL
Leadership is taking people from where they are to where they need to be at the pace you can get them to travel. It is not standing where you think they should be and shouting at them from there.
Over the last twelve years, we have had the privilege of assisting literally dozens of very successful organizational transformations. Success can be clearly measured in areas like:
- Increased sales and margin
- Increased internal and external customer satisfaction
- Increased productivity
- Decreased absenteeism and staff turnover
HOW TO GROW YOUR PEOPLE THROUGH A TRANSFORMATION THAT WORKS
Follow these steps, and success is virtually inevitable.
1. CREATE AN IMPERATIVE
This can either be by creating a compelling future to move towards, or by showing that we can no longer live in the past.
2. HAVE A CLEAR DIRECTION AND STRATEGY
Look like you know where you are going. By definition, leaders lead. By the time leaders go to their staff with the cultural change programme, they have determined what it looks like, what the future looks like, and are able to outline a clear strategy to get there.
3. HAVE A ROBUST LEARNING PROGRAMME
By definition new culture will require new behaviour. Your people need to be assured that there is a clear and specific training and development programme that will teach them how to behave in the new cultural environment.
4. MAKE IT A HEARTS AND MINDS THING
New behaviours mean you need new thinking. New thinking does not come from lectures, but from ensuring the cultural transformation programme captures the hearts and minds of the entire staff. Only deal with training partners (insourced or outsourced) who understand this vital component and can deliver it. You can not trust your cultural transformation programme to boring trainers, even if they are cheap.
5. VERTICALLY INTEGRATE
The old adage: walk the walk and talk the talk sounds like a tired old cliché to leaders but is very much on the minds of the staff. Management need to be seen strongly endorsing the new culture at every level of the training programme that supports the new culture.
6. FOLLOW THROUGH
Cultural transformation is a process not an event.Most of your staff are not going to be prepared to travel as fast as you- if they could, they would be your competitors and not your staff. Follow-through..
7. REWARD THE NEW BEHAVIOURS
Clearly define them, measure them, give feedback and reward the new behaviours. It is that simple. No, really, it is.
8. HAVE KEEPERS OF THE FAITH
At every level throughout the organization, recognize, reward and empower employees who can embody the new culture. Let them become centres of influence.
9. KEEP IT INSPIRATIONAL
Cultural transformation is an inspirational journey. It involves change, which is something that many people fear, fight or flee from. At every level, ensure that your whole programme of transformation is a careful balance between the instructional and the inspirational.
To build a cultural transformation programme that works, give us a call.
HERE’S TO YOUR SUCCESSFUL FUTURE
