Leading Workplace Change™

During a recent after dinner discussion on a Saturday night, a friend started talking about his work and how the “young folks just did not want to pay their dues.” His voice started getting louder and he stated that they need to put their time in and not expect to be leading the big jobs right away. My response was - “so it sounds like you value tenure over training and expertise?” No, he said, I just think this younger generation is pushy (remember, he is the friend of the “older, but wiser white lady”). His wife smiled and gave his arm a light tap. He looked at me and said - “what do you mean?”

I replied - “You may want to think about what is really needed for a job - experience, expertise or both and then make your decision accordingly and communicate why when talking to folks.” He replied - “that sounds like work!” We all laughed, and I said - “yes, that is what we ‘old-timers’ need to be doing - managing people as part of our job.”

Tags: Leaders Leading by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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I was moved to start a blog due to recent experiences with long-term clients. I realized these clients were stuck - nothing new in change management consulting, especially if you focus on helping leaders adapt their organizational cultures! I finally realized that the difficulty was a few key members of the management teams were not making important decisions, holding the whole team back and mostly because they were unable to personally act differently.

Now, changing how you act is a difficult task for anyone, let alone folks who now realize that whatever they do as leaders will be watched like a hawk by all employees of their organization. As consultants’ we had done a good job in communicating the responsibility of leaders to model and reward how they wanted everyone to act if they wanted a shift in their workplace culture - maybe too good a job. Eventually, I realized these leaders were human and nervous about their abilities to change their day-to-day behaviors. I remembered the same feeling when I ran an organization 15 years ago and mandated that everyone use an electronic client update system and I personally still did not understand how Windows worked on my computer!

We initiated individual coaching processes in our client organizations, but it was not enough.  So, the idea of a blog came to me as a way to more privately support people to act differently through the use of personal and workplace stories. I knew in my bones the power to inspire when you tell stories in small groups and big presentations and it seemed worth trying this new blog technology to tell stories in a more intimate way.

Tags: Personal-Ah-Hah Moments by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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An acquaintance who works in executive search, recently called me to talk about how she could improve her confidence in providing good “culture fit” candidates for her clients.  When I asked her how she does it now, she said - it is a rather informal process.  I listen to the words a client uses to describe their organization, and then to the personal characteristics they are looking for in a person.  I then look at the accomplishments of candidates and use that as a predictor of future abilities and “culture fit.”

My response was that she was on track in thinking of “culture fit” by listening to her clients’ own words.  We talked more and I offered a way of defining “culture fit” more systematically by asking four questions to get more specific info on what an organization values which would allow her to be clearer on what characteristics to look for in candidates.

1. What are your organization’s current sources of competitive advantage?

a. Such as technical superiority; listening to the customer; or, by dominating the industry

2. How do executives currently work together to meet business goals?

a. Such as being a team player; being results-oriented; or, being a builder of relationships

3. How are decisions made currently among the management team?

a. Such as: top down; collaborative give & take; or, through debate & conflict

4. Is the organization looking for any different ways of working in the future?

I counseled her that the last question is very important in that she needs to know the difference between how things really work and what are just desired ways of working.  A candidate with good “culture fit” has to know how to maneuver through the middle ground of what is and what is desired!

Tags: Workplace Stories by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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Here is a story that is representative of findings from our field work. I recently worked with a cross-section of employees within an organization to help them identify their organizational culture.  Let’s call them, the Culture Team.  We discussed one of the findings - that job security and advancement are more likely to be determined by “knowing the right people” than it is by job performance.   An employee quote that seemed to define this culture characteristic is - … we tend to not be a meritocracy.  Capabilities and performance are less important than personal relationships, friendships, history and tenure in being personally successful here.

The longer-tenured members of the culture team looked confused, and noted there was talk about putting in a pay-for-performance process.  While an articulate young man could not help himself and burst out with - “this is crazy, I want to be measured by what I do, not by how well I network and make other people look good!” 

The room fell silent and finally, an older female Team member said - “yes, our culture does honor the use of relationships to get our work done and it is not all bad.  Working together well and having interpersonal skills in how to relate with people is important for our success - we are in the service business.”  The discussion then moved to how quickly the organization is growing and how the work is getting more complex and that there are more younger people here from many different backgrounds.  The discussion concluded with the thought that using relationships to get our work done probably worked better when the organization was smaller, more homogeneous and a simpler work place.  

The Culture Team agreed upon the need for balance - and that the first step for culture change was for leaders to start talking about the importance of setting clear goals and measuring results while working together.  And, the new pay-for-performance system must be clear in its rewards for people who meet performance goals as well as for building relationship skills.

Tags: Workplace Stories by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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I am always putting on my “corporate culture observer” hat - most times because it is my job and that is what people pay me for, but other times - I just cannot help it.  I interact with people in casual conversation and hear them talk about their work and community lives, and I unconsciously latch onto clues that tell me something about how culture is influencing them in what they do.

For example, yesterday I went early with my dog to the park down the street and I met a neighbor who I regularly meet with his dog.  We know each other well through our early morning conversations about most everything.  This morning, we talked about his son’s baseball team and how as a coach, he has to raise money for the team’s upcoming trip to Cooperstown.  He said, “you know it is easy for me, because raising money is what I am rewarded for in my work.”  I looked at him with a question in my eyes and he said - “as a medical researcher/professor in a university, writing grants is what I do all the time - I have to find a way for the funders to believe in me, my ideas and find a way to feed the funders’ egos enough so they will give me money - I am a salesman.”

I locked that bit of info up in my culture bin for future reference - one of the keys to personal success at a research university is to be good at sales - selling the intangible.  I never would have thought of that on my own, but it makes sense.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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I recently read a good article that relates storytelling to leading change. It is called “The Four Truths of the Storyteller” by Peter Guber in the Harvard Business School (12/07). The cool thing is that Guber is a film producer of such movies as Rain Man, Batman and The Color Purple, so the article interweaves the world of filmmaking and leadership. What I like the best about the article is that Guber gives very specific and behavioral info about how to tell a story that people will get wrapped up in like a movie. He connects storytelling to the shamans’ and griots’ of pre-history who helped groups, tribes and civilizations to pass on their beliefs, values and rules in their tales of great heroes, triumphs and tragedies.

This connects directly to my thoughts that leaders who want to consciously manage culture change need to be good storytellers, because there is power in stories – we, as humans are biologically wired to like listening to stories – to be entertained and to learn at the same time. And the end goal for leaders who aspire to manage culture change is - to get people to act the way you want them to in a natural and self-sustaining way. So read this article to get the basics of how to tell a good story.

Tags: Good Books and Articles by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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This is a story about one of my first ah-hah’s regarding the reality of organizational culture. I was at a monthly staff meeting in my first job after getting my MBA. It was early in the year and the regional manager was talking about the annual sales competition. The part of the speech that was my ah-hah was about the prizes offered to folks with the highest sales numbers for the year. Remember, this is in the 1980’s and I am female, interested in the arts and from suburban New Jersey.
Third prize – season tickets for the University of Georgia Bulldog Football Games
Second prize – one-year lease on a Chevy Truck
First prize – all expense-paid trip to go boar hunting in Southern Alabama

My first response was blank as I looked around the room at the other sales folks (mostly male and primarily from the Southeast part of the U.S.) who were getting excited – I realized in that moment that this was not the right job for me. I looked at the sales manager, who had always taken care to support and mentor me, and I could tell that he knew he had lost me, but did not know what to do. My mind was saying – I cannot wait as long as it will take for this organization to understand, let alone appreciate and act upon what motivates me. I just do not “fit-in” here.

Now in hindsight, I wish I had the courage to go to my manager and talk about how the prizes were not going to motivate me; and, I wish my manager would have come to me and asked what was wrong. But, the corporate culture kept us both quiet.

Tags: Personal-Ah-Hah Moments by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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