Is Your Culture Calling 911?
Creating a culture of achievement
Sid Ridgley, CSP, MBA
When customers don’t get what they need, they take a walk. When employees
don’t get what they need, they take a walk. And when stakeholders, in particular
shareholders, don’t get what they need, YOU take a walk. A culture of
achievement dramatically expands your personal capacity, and that of your
organization, to effectively respond to known and unknown factors that affect
performance, thereby saving you from taking that walk.
The signs that tell you that your culture is calling 911 include such
things as higher employee turnover than expected, frequently missed deadlines,
employees who are disconnected with their work, increases in short-term
absences, increases in customer complaints, information not being shared,
increases in requests for policies and procedures, missed targets and goals,
fault-finding behaviour, and errors in judgment that simply defy logic.
Most employees in today’s economy, especially talented employees, have
many more options. They don't have expectations of twenty-five years and a gold
watch, so they're looking for education and experiences that will keep them
growing and enjoying their work. They expect to be involved in the decisions
that affect them and their work, hence their performance. And it is reasonable
to expect good employees to gravitate to and stay with achieving organizations.
As leaders you get the kind of culture you deserve. There will always be a
culture in the organization and culture can be changed, albeit slowly-unless of
course, an organization is facing impending doom such as a bankruptcy, major
downsizing or a take-over. Getting the job done and leaving a legacy of solid
leadership is more than a goal; it is the way successful leaders live.
Successful leaders have given us answers to the key questions that
managers ask themselves when attempting to install an achievement-oriented
culture. Knowing the answers to these questions will help you unlock the
synergistic power of your people.
KEY QUESTIONS
What is the linkage between performance, leadership style and culture?
What is the difference between culture and climate?
What are the elements of culture?
What does an Achievement culture look like?
What are the business/management systems that affect culture?
What is the linkage between performance, leadership style and culture?
Put this question in front of a seasoned group of managers and they will
conclude that these are interrelated. It is easy to see that a leader’s style
has an impact on performance and on culture; it is easy to see that performance,
particularly when it is very good or very bad, has an impact on the leader’s
style and on culture. It is also easy to see that culture has an impact on the
leader’s style and performance. However, ask which one comes first, and the
debate begins.
Based on our work with major organizations in North America there is only
one valid conclusion to be made. It starts with the leader. For example, Michael
Rockert joined Siemens Business Services Canada, Inc. as its Chief Executive
Officer in September 2001. He took over an organization that had fewer than 100
employees and was in dire need of focus, energy, and spirit. Today, less than 4
years later he has an organization of over 500 people, people who achieve their
goals, and then some. He lives and breathes the mission of his organization, and
so do his people. His methodology for achieving success revolves around picking
great people with talent and potential, dealing with dissent and underperformers, and maintaining a laser-sharp orientation towards serving and
satisfying the needs of the customer.
What is the difference between culture and climate?
Unfortunately, too many human resource professionals, and other senior
people, believe that culture and climate are interchangeable words. We’ve seen
huge sums of money wasted in morale and attitude surveys that did little more
than help people feel better about their working conditions. I’ve yet to see
where a new coat of paint and cleaning up the washrooms turned the organization
around. Climate is about esthetics, while culture is about structural soundness
of the organization. Culture and climate have different definitions. Differences
also exist in the type of measures used and the purpose of those measures.
Definitions of Culture and Climate:
Culture is the sum total of commonly held beliefs about what behaviours
are appropriate when doing business with customers or working with each other.
Values about what is important, and beliefs about how things should be done, are
central components. These shared values and beliefs create norms and performance
expectations that influence the way people think and behave.
Climate is comprised of individual descriptions and perceptions of the
social setting to which the individual belongs. Climate reflects the way in
which people are treated: fair pay, open communications, boss-subordinate
relations, co-worker relationships, for example.
Difference in and purpose of measures:
Culture surveys tap employees’ beliefs related to how people ought to
think and behave, e.g., sharing of information, empowerment, authority, problemsolving, satisfying customers, working with suppliers, on-going improvement in
quality, respect for others and respect for organizational resources. For
culture, the purpose is to improve the development (hence performance) of the
organization and its employees.
Climate surveys tap employees’ descriptive beliefs and feelings about what
it is like to be a member of the organization, particularly related to what has
or does occur within the organization, e.g., pay systems, performance
measurements, communication effectiveness, team relations, clarity of job
responsibilities, skills and experience needed to do the job, and self-esteem.
For climate, the purpose is to improve the relationships between the
organization and its employees.
When you are investing in the effort to solicit employee feedback, be sure
that you are getting feedback on your organization’s culture.
What are the elements of culture?
When employees are asked to define culture they will often say: “It’s the
unwritten rule book we have around here.” Actually, it is about shared values
and beliefs:
1- The way we handle our customers, i.e., the norms and expectations
concerning how customers are to be treated,
2- The way we treat each other as employees, i.e., the norms and
expectations about sharing information, authority and taking ownership,
3- The way leaders and managers in the organization motivate, reward and
develop people, i.e., the mechanisms and methods used to acknowledge
successful outcomes and the achievement of goals.
One of the primary roles of a leader is to provide clarity: Clarity on
goals, responsibilities, on practices and behaviors that are encouraged or
condemned. Employees working in organizational cultures based on strongly
shared values show signs of higher commitment, self-confidence, ethical
behavior, and reduced job stress.
In their book, Corporate Culture & Performance,(Free Press, 1992), J.
Kotter and J. Herbett provide evidence that firms which emphasize key
constituencies, such as customers, stockholders, and employees, and who had
multilevel leadership outperformed others over an 11-year period:
Increase in revenues 5.2 times more than the average,
Expansion in workforce 7.8 times more,
Growth in stock price 12.2 times more,
Net income improvement 8.5 times more.
What does an Achievement culture look like?
Managers and executives today are under a tremendous amount of pressure to
produce results, and timelines which an organization has to adapt to changing
market conditions are very short. In essence, the executive has to get the job
done and grow his/her people. With workforces that are (typically) more highly
educated than 25 years ago, expectations for involvement in workplace decisions
are very high. By establishing a culture of achievement, a more satisfied
workplace with an increased capacity to adapt is the result. As we all know, at
least intuitively, there is a correlation between employee satisfaction and
customer satisfaction.
Our research with organizations suggests that one of the things that
employees want most in a workplace is to “not to look stupid.” Nor to be put in
a position where they don’t know what is going on. They also want to know what
role they are to play in the accomplishment of goals. Employees want to make a
contribution!
Robert A. Cooke and J. Clayton Lafferty identified in organizations 12
specific types of behavioral norms that can be grouped into 3 clusters (OCI
Interpretation & Development Guide, Publisher: Human Synergistics, page 3.)
Their research showed clear linkages between behavioral norms, as found in the
Constructive Cluster, and workplace performance.
The Constructive Cluster of behavioural norms:
“Members are encouraged to interact with people and approach tasks in ways
that will help them to meet their higher-order satisfaction needs.”
Includes Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and
Affiliative norms.
The Passive-Defensive Cluster of behavioural norms:
“Members believe they must interact with people in ways that will not
threaten their own security.” Includes Approval, Conventional, Dependent,
and Avoidance norms.
The Aggressive-Defensive Cluster of behavioural norms:
“Members are expected to approach tasks in forceful ways to protect their
status and security.” Includes Oppositional, Power, Competitive and
Perfectionistic norms.
Based on Cooke and Lafferty’s work in identifying the behavioural norms of
90 “excellent” organizations, augmented with our organizational development
experience, a clear picture emerges. An achieving culture is a culture in which
employees are expected to set, and enthusiastically pursue, challenging but
realistic goals while being supportive, helpful, collaborative and open to
learn.
When Andrew Jennings was appointed President of Holt Renfrew, Canada’s
leading upscale fashion retailer, he inherited an organization that was somewhat
stodgy, set in its ways, and too tied up in doing things in the “tried and true
way.” In short order he recognized that he had a passive/defensive culture that
emphasized a “don’t rock the boat” attitude. He quickly changed all of that. By
sheer style, energy, enthusiasm and personal example, he led the change at Holt
Renfrew. He set a bold standard for the organization to “achieve superior retail
performance that can be and will be measured against the best of the best in the
world: Saks 5th Avenue, Barney’s, Neiman Marcus, Selfridges and others.”
Setting a high performance bar is one aspect of an achieving culture. This
method is especially powerful when leaders remain true to-and are clear aboutstrategies, goals and challenges that it takes to reach the expected level of
performance. Andrew was often heard saying, “Keep the main thing the main
thing,” meaning, remain focused on your primary goals. He demonstrated that
focus at every opportunity as he would consistently and constantly talk
passionately about the standards and goals of the company. As he said to me,
“The prayer does not suffer through repetition.”
The other aspect of an achieving culture is to ensure that good people are
attracted to and remain with the organization. Andrew invested in the
development of his people. By working with his senior team, we developed a weeklong “Summer School” for his high-potential people. Andrew was personally
involved and always took the time to address each group. He spoke with great
passion about customers and the business and with clarity about what it would
take to reach Holt Renfrew’s performance goals. He proved to be a truly
achievement-oriented executive by consistently answering questions in a candid
manner. Holt Renfrew achieved great things during his tenure and now Andrew
Jennings is the President of Saks 5th Avenue.
General Electric Company under the leadership of Jack Welch, and now under
Jeff Immelt, also demonstrates the power and longevity of an achievementculture. Jack was asked by one of the high-potential students at GE’s training
center about the “pressure for short-term results.” Jack answered: “You can't
grow long-term if you can't eat short-term. Anybody can manage short. Anybody
can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.”
When Jack retired, GE was considered by many headhunters to have the most
talent rich management bench in the world. It continues to be so today. While
Jack was known for his zealous drive for results, what most people may not know
is that he, by his own account, invested more than fifty-percent of his time
learning about his people and their potential.
Both Holt Renfrew and GE concretely demonstrate that “getting the job done
and growing your people” are not optional, but mandatory for ensuring
sustainable performance.
What are the business/management systems that affect culture?
With the launching of most organizational initiatives today, we’ll hear
employees say: “here we go again,” “let’s see how long this will last,” “stay
low, this too shall pass.” I strongly believe that a review of failed
initiatives in an organization will reveal that the cause of failure wasn’t that
the idea or strategy was poor but that implementation was inept. That’s why
we’ll also hear employees say “Let’s wait to see if they walk the talk.”
Identifying the behavioral norms that exist, and showing them in a
pictorial format, provides leaders with the means to “talk” about an achieving
organizational culture and its attributes. To some degree this is the easy part.
The hard part, the “walk,” is making it happen. This is done by aligning and
refining the organization’s systems in order to create re-enforcing cycles of
culture development, never an easy task. For example, you and your organization
may say that “customer satisfaction is a key company value,” yet appraisal
systems or bonus structures don’t acknowledge its importance.
The reality is, you can “talk” until you are “blue” but you will not make
long-term behavioral changes. “Walking the talk” becomes a reality when your
organizational systems/processes work for you.
Our work with organizations has identified 12 Primary Impact Process
groups which are further segmented into 4 clusters of organizational systems.
12 Primary Impact
Process Groups
People
Management
Leadership
Culture / Image
Performance
Organization Focus
Customer
Loyalty
People Focus
©Simul Corporation
In a nutshell, this model illustrates that the right people, doing the
right things for their customers, generate the right results and create the
right kind of image that stakeholders can be proud of.
The People Cluster of organizational systems
Quality People
The right people, with the right skills and experience in the right jobs
(current and future).
Accountability
Everyone is empowered and expected to act because performance management
and measurement systems deliver positive and negative rewards.
Reward and Recognition
Both tangible and intangible mechanisms that are used with individualized
feedback in order to reinforce desired behaviors.
The Customer Loyalty Cluster of organizational systems
Customer Value Proposition
Value creation is based on a competitive balance between product
leadership-“great product”; operational efficiency-“great price”; and customer
affiliation-“great solution”.
Effective Service Processes
Customers find it easy to do business with you, and employees have the
knowledge, skills, experience and tools to do the job.
Promises Delivered
The people of the organization live up to their promises made to their
customers and to each other. Customer Relationship Management is a key strategy.
The Performance Cluster of organizational systems
Measurements
Measurements are a key component of “accountability.” They serve as
vehicles for communicating performance and providing guidance for making
decisions.
Goal and Reward Alignment
Easy to understand, difficult to accomplish. Strategies, goals and
objectives are linked.
Business and Financial Planning
Business plans, including the strategic plan, are vibrant, relevant and
clearly communicated.
The Culture/Image Cluster of organizational systems
Service Excellence
“Brand” image is strong and relevant to the customer. High levels of
customer satisfaction and loyalty are pursued and maintained.
Employee Satisfaction
Employees believe in their organization and its purpose. Managers and
employees listen to each other and have open, candid conversations.
Community and Key Stakeholders
The organization is a valued member of society, and shareholders hold the
belief that their investments are in good hands.
TAKING ACTION
Executives are under pressure to perform, and we have seen more turnover
of executives when they don’t. Employees also have expectations about what they
can get from their work environment. When it falls short of expectations they
leave or reduce their level of performance. While accountability and performance
are key issues in most workplaces today, empowerment and being customer-driven
are under-utilized as means for establishing an achieving culture.
Regardless of the industry sector, e.g., technology, healthcare,
manufacturing, achievement-oriented executives understand that every business is
in the same business, that is, to attract and retain loyal customers and to
attract and retain loyal employees.
Customer and employee expectations continue to be on an upward trend. A
customer value proposition that isn’t constantly improving is a recipe for
market failure. An employee value proposition that isn’t constantly evolving is
a recipe for establishing higher levels of resistance to change. When the
organization’s performance starts to wane, the owners get very concerned. And we
all know what can happen when owners lose confidence in the organization’s
leaders.
In addition, in many organizations, employees are very cynical as it
relates to any new initiative. They’ve seen too many start with great fanfare
only to fizzle out, sometimes in a matter of months. Unless there is an
impending survival need, culture change takes 3 to 5 years to fully take root.
Steps to take:
1- Recognize that an achievement-culture has the strength to run for the
longer term.
2- Identify the norms of behavior that exist and those that are desired.
3- Assess whether the impact that you think you are having as a leader is
actually “real.”
4- Re-evaluate all of your initiatives for this year by categorizing them
into 1, or more, of the 12 Primary Impact Process Groupings. Make changes
where appropriate.
5- Learn how to identify and develop talent.
6- Reward and recognize behaviors that matter.
7- Solicit feedback from customers, employees, shareholders and other
stakeholders. Act on the feedback.
8- Set high but realistic goals and objectives, and hold people
accountable for their performance.
9- Constantly and consistently communicate your “picture of what a great
organization looks like” while aligning current processes and systems.
10- Remember the “main thing is the main thing”; it is about attracting
and retaining loyal customers.
Talented executives such as Michael Rockert and Andrew Jennings have
taught us much about what it takes to create successful organizations, such as
identifying and developing great talent, setting high goals and expectations,
holding people accountable for results and, rewarding and recognizing on the
basis of those results. They’ve also taught us the importance of being clear
about “what” must be done, especially as it relates to customer care, rather
than “how” things must be done. They’ve demonstrated the need to be active
participants in defining, installing and managing an achievement-based culture
and, in short, to take ownership for it.
The bottom line is this: every leader gets the kind of culture he/she
deserves. Wishing for a better culture simply won’t make it so. Something I
learned very early on in my career, “executives who can keep the Queen Mary on
course” are plentiful. However “executives, like Michael and Andrew, who can
chart a course and navigate the Queen Mary, are rare.” So, is your culture
dialing 911?
Sid Ridgley, specializes in the development of ideal places to work
through the simultaneous improvement of both customer and employee satisfaction.
He provides insights, guidance and practical tips and hints to leaders in their
pursuit of creating organizational workplaces that are customer and employee
centered.
He has earned his expertise through:
 Executive management responsibilities in retail and software
development fields in both line and human resources assignments
 Active board member participation in associations: Canadian Association
of Professional Speakers, HealthCare Service Excellence Association,
Markham Village Business Improvement Area, to name a few
 Adjunct executive development instructor for York University (Schulich
School of Business) and the University of Winnipeg
 Providing clients with customized programs that get results.
A few of his career highlights include:
 Creating Customer-centered organizations that are better places to work
and to do business with through Simul’s multi-step organizational
development system
 Receiving an OTTER award from the Ontario Society for Training and
Development for excellence in program design and delivery
 Enhancing the skills of thousands of leaders as they flex and adapt to
the changing and challenging (some even say hostile) environment.
His consulting and training practice includes clients from many industry
sectors in both Canada and the United States.
Sid’s personal mission is to “help people focus their energy into growing
their business and its people, and themselves.”
Sid can be reached at: Simul / UtilityPULSE, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, L4G 7X9
Tel: 888-291-7892, email: sridgley@simulcorp.com or sidridgley@utilitypulse.com
website: www.simulcorp.com and www.utilitypulse.com .