Leading Workplace Change™

In my last post I wrote about a public figure openly acknowledging a flaw in their thinking and how that capability is a powerful tool for leaders to model and reward in a time of change.  It allows for people to move forward quickly past paralysis and blaming to new ways of acting.  In thinking more, I realized there is an “underbelly” side to how some organizations respond to people taking responsibility for their mistakes that needs to be shared as well.

One “underbelly” response usually occurs in organizations where the focus on achieving results or winning is taken to an extreme.  In these workplaces, missteps are not easily accepted or forgotten and people look for opportunities to take advantage of someone else’s slip-up for their own benefit.  The focus is usually on winning for oneself and not for the good of the company.  This quote exemplifies the impact on employee productivity and morale.

Those that slip-up want to pass responsibility on to others and not be part of the solution.  No one wants to take the blame.  People are afraid that someone else will take advantage of the mistake for their own benefit.  The system for rewards and recognition encourages individual “point scoring” over others rather than teamwork.

There is clearly a feel of internal competition in this workplace.  It would take courage or connections with the “right people” for someone to be willinging to try something new. 

Consequently, the learning for leaders is first to be aware and assess the workplace culture you breathe everyday.  Are there any “underbelly” practices that may act as barriers to openly acknowledging and learning from mistakes?  How would you personally intercede to re-direct these undermining practices?  Follow the advice of Peter Drucker as outlined in one of my previous posts and look for pockets in the workplace where folks are regularly more open.  Ask them how they make it safe for people to try new ways of working and hold themselves accountable for achieving results?

Finally, a primary role of leaders who want to mindfully re-direct their workplace culture, is to have a personal story crafted as to why they see a shift in behaviors is needed.  Be prepared to be called dull and boring as your job will be to repeat differing versions of the story many times over the weeks, months ahead as people muscle their way through new ways of working.

Tags: Leaders Leading, Workplace Stories by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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In my last few posts, the theme has been identifying organizational culture characteristics that help to explain why some companies make it through hard economic times and others do not.  Companies who compete in a cyclical industry are a gold mine of culture best practices as their organizational DNA is built to withstand regular ups and downs.  One common cultural characteristic we find within these companies is an optimistic spirit engrained in how they operate.  This quote from a leader in a defense contractor company with over 75 years of history defines it well. 

We have been under the gun before.  We pick ourselves up again and again.  The strength of this place is the ability to sustain the peaks and valleys with a positive spirit.

We see this positive spirit emerge in employees from all levels of successful cyclical industry companies and described in a variety of ways.  It can be as simple as an employee taking pride in their work.

I feel personally successful because I keep our aging equipment operational day after day.

And for others, they will describe their organization through metaphors of resilience.

- We are like a strong heart…just keeps beating and beating.

- What we do best is ‘hunker down’ and wait…just believe we are going to make it.  The tide will turn our way again.

For a leader, there are some cautions in how to manage this cultural characteristic of optimistic spirit.  In such companies, employees relate that one of the requirements for personal success is to be upbeat in attitude and message;  if taken to an extreme,this can lead to unintended consequences where the culture makes it difficult to talk about negative or controversial topics.  Accordingly, leaders and managers need to be mindful about finding a balance between modeling and rewarding optimism while at the same time putting in mechanisms to allow critical comments to be heard.

In cultures where resilience is valued and nurtured, an optimistic spirit is a key characteristic to support a company to naturally move through hard economic times and work together to endure.

Tags: Leaders Leading, Workplace Stories by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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I met up with a friend recently, and in five minutes, he brought me up to date on his job at a residential real estate company.  He started by saying - “we hired a new managing broker from outside the company; she is putting in an electronic marketing system and it is driving us crazy!”  He laughed as he said - ”We never needed a marketing system before.  We put our client names on a PDA rolodex - made sure we kept up with relationships at the country club and every year many of us made the million dollar club.  But the current downturn in the market is making all of us nervous and we know we need to do some things differently.”

I could not help but put on my “corporate culture observer” hat as I heard him use the phrase keeping up with relationships.  It makes sense that being relationship-driven is one of the traditional underlying sources of success in residential real estate.  It is the case in most companies where success in personal selling is the preferred method used to create income. And, from my knowledge of organizational culture it is normal that the primary source of external success is also many times used to guide how people operate within the sales organization.  They probably do not write things down or record how work gets done. They most likely talk to the folks who have been there the longest to find out how to solve a problem.

Utilizing an electronic marketing system is of course driving my friend and his colleagues crazy at his company.  It requires people to input data regularly which takes time away from maintaining relationships.  This is going against the grain of a relationship-driven culture and it will be hard for people to maintain unless people are consistently supported and the system brings in some quick wins.  The managing broker will need to support people in muscling their way through unfamiliar behaviors.

My friend ended his tirade against the new marketing system by noting that he agreed with the new managing broker’s plan about everyone needing to work smarter and build on each other’s success.  I asked him if he thought the new marketing system would help them to do that.  His response was – “Yes, but someone has to be brave enough to take the time and teach me how to work the system first!”

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Workplace Stories by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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We recently started a culture project with an organization that was once part of the federal government and became “privatized” in the last 10 years.  This organization is also very safety conscious and rightly so, as they deal in hazardous materials.  So as you might expect guidelines on how work gets done are specific - expectations are that you follow all process steps.

As in many companies, they wanted their culture results in time for a big management meeting - two months away.  We were told, “don’t worry, we can get this project done quickly, we are a top-down kind of place.  We can send out notices today and people will be at a meeting tomorrow!  This sounded like a nice break from some of the companies, we had been working with where work gets done through relationships, and scheduling meetings can take forever.

Planning moved along quickly, but we came up with a few snags that are also part of top-down cultures. We got push back on some of our culture questions as being “too vague and employees would never understand them.” We are used to these kind of “level conscious” comments from managers and were able to help them realize that the openness was on purpose to enable line employees as well as managers to express in their own way how work gets done in their company.

The major barrier turned out to be waiting for the CEO to sign off on an introductory letter explaining the purpose of the culture project.  In a top-down culture, this is very important and the right process step to adhere to.  But, here we are - four weeks later, waiting for the CEO to return from a trip to Asia; attend a son’s graduation; and leave time for a long holiday weekend.  Yes, the command and control culture is alive and well. You have to wait for the commander’s OK.

Tags: Workplace Stories 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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