Influencing Culture at Hallmark Cards
and the LDS Church
December, 2008
DESIRED CULTURE SUPPORTING
STRATEGIC INTENT
INFORMAL SYSTEMS
• STORIES
• HISTORY
• CUSTOMS
• HEROINES
• RABBI/BISHOPS
• LANGUAGE
• PARADIGMS
• UNWRITTEN RULES
FORMAL SYSTEMS
• STRATEGIC/TACTICAL
PLANNING
• WORK FLOW
• STRUCTURE
• CONTROL
• INFORMATION FLOW
• DECISION
• POLICY
ACTUAL CULTURE
Hallmark Cards
• We need a culture that is focused on:
–The Customer
–Performance
–Accountability
Planning Performance and Hallmark’s Financial Cycle
Managing Cultural Dilemmas at Hallmark
What’s a dilemma?
–A situation where the co-existence of two or more
ideas creates significant tension and is automatically
“framed” in people’s minds as an apparent
contradiction.
– 1: an argument presenting two or more equally
conclusive alternatives
– 2 a: a usually undesirable or unpleasant choice
– 3 a: a problem involving a difficult choice <the
dilemma of “liberty versus order”
Why do dilemmas matter?
• Everyday issues often take the form of
dilemmas.
• Change is not just about letting go
of the bad — it also includes holding on
to perceived good.
• Efforts to change organization culture require
changing how these dilemmas get resolved or
mediated.
Resolving/mediating dilemmas
• Determining how to manage a dilemma:
–
a clear choice from among desirable or undesirable
alternatives; OR
–
a willingness to live with the tension and inconsistency;
OR
–
a solution that reinvents the relationship
among the ideas:
•
from contradictory to complementary.
•
from contradictory to independent.
•
from contradictory to dependent.
•
from contradictory to interdependent.
Dilemma example
Performance-based
people management
practices
AND/OR
Seniority/longevity-based
people management
practices
• Human resource practices based primarily on performance
rather than seniority seriously disrupt sense of fairness.
• Extremely low termination rate is something to feel good about.
• Extremely low termination rate is something to feel bad about.
• “Fairness” at Hallmark is incompatible with demanding high
performance and results from people.
• Performance is about results, not efforts or activities.
• Focusing solely on results will threaten our great culture and
create unproductive internal competition.
“Hallmarkers who are performanceand results-driven are rewarded”
What this means:
–
Hallmark recognizes and rewards individuals based on results
against clearly stated objectives.
–
Clear objectives allow direct, fair and honest feedback and
performance evaluations.
–
Job security is based on meeting individual objectives,
producing successful results for the business and strong
performance in 10 competency areas.
–
Seniority is valued and is the result of consistently meeting
increasingly challenging performance objectives.
Dilemma example
Sharing Information:
To enable employees to be business partners,
they must have information about the business
Family Owners’ Privacy:
The family that owns the
company values its privacy,
and that must be protected
Competitive Secrecy:
Our key competitors are reputed to
have moles in the building. They
are rumored to meet once a week
to review what they know about
the company.
“Hallmarkers communicate
openly, directly and honestly”
What this means:
–
The nature of our business demands that we hold
ourselves to high standards of honesty and compassion
in our communication.
–
Hallmarkers share their opinions boldly
and candidly, while thoughtfully listening
to others’ ideas.
–
Hallmarkers recognize that a diversity of opinions,
openly discussed and debated,
is a prerequisite to good decision-making.
Dilemma example
Line-of-sight
accountability*
AND/OR
Accountability beyond
direct control
* scope of accountability aligned
with scope of control.
• People can’t be fairly held accountable for results when their
performance is greatly dependent on the efforts of other people
or departments over which they have little or no direct control.
• In a performance-driven company, there should be a direct
correlation between how people perform and the rewards and
recognition they receive.
• Working in teams diffuses accountability and covers weaknesses
in performance.
• In an interdependent environment working in teams heightens
and strengthens performance.
“The amount of responsibility for organizational results
increases in proportion
to one’s level within the organization”
What this means:
–
All managers, and especially senior managers, assume
responsibility beyond what they can directly control
through their own and their group’s actions.
–
All Hallmarkers are accountable for their individual job
performance and its impact within their own organization.
Managing Cultural Dilemmas
at the Church
•
Can I disagree on an issue and:
– still maintain a spirit of obedience?
– not invite contention into the work?
•
How can I balance the command to be “anxiously engaged…and do many
things of [my] own free will” with the direction to follow our leaders?
•
How can we balance a “high performance” work culture with family and
Church responsibilities?
•
How do I balance gospel principles such as mercy, forgiveness, the spirit
and love with business practices such as rewarding performance,
punishing failure, and compliance to policies?
•
How can my past work be valued in times of change?
•
How can I avoid worldly preoccupation with self and seeking the praise of
men while focusing on my career and competing with others for
positions?
Guiding Employee Performance
Gospel Principles
Common Worldly Practices
1
We set the highest of standards expecting The world often defines standards in
eventually to meet them….
terms of safe, proven or likely performance.
2
We are more interested in being good
than in looking good….
The world emphasizes looking good.
3
We actively look for performance gaps in
ourselves as a crucial step in the process
of perfection….
The world is inclined to hide performance
gaps.
4
We identify performance gaps in
ourselves and others in the spirit of
mercy, forgiveness and love which
develops a feeling of hope for
improvement….
The world is inclined to identify
performance gaps as a personal failure
which can develop a spirit of self doubt
and discouragement.
5
We humbly acknowledge the need for
personal improvement without feeling
personally devastated….
The world is inclined to become defensive
and angry when performance gaps or the
need for improvement is identified.
Supporting Scriptures
1
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect.
2
Matthew 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad
their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
3
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us.
4
D&C 95:1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also
chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I Prepare a way for
their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you.
Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
5
2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye
sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner… For godly
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation … but the sorrow of the world worketh
death.