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Yet, one simple "rule of business" remains constant. Your organization's ability to execute is the ultimate determinant of your success. And, when it comes to effective execution your potential roadblocks are many.
At Ford Business Consulting, our specialty is helping organizations overcome obstacles to superior execution by tuning the human system to support the business strategy.read more...
At Ford Business Consulting, our specialty is helping organizations overcome obstacles to superior execution by tuning the human system to support the business strategy.read more...
A Little Less Talk?
Raise your hand if you’d like to spend more time in meetings. Yeah, right… Like we'd like hotter weather in Texas this summer, I bet.
How about spending more of your meeting time in vital and productive conversations about significant issues affecting your organization’s success? What if you could do that instead of more of the usual topics or those boring "report out" sessions that have no impact?
As a leader, you must anticipate threats and opportunities before they slap the organization in the face. To do this, you must take in confusing and conflicting data about the environment from multiple sources and discern the patterns in the data. In other words, your job is to make sense of the ambiguous and contradictory mess of data to anticipate changes. You’ll do this individually sometimes, more often in dialogue with your team. These are conversations that produce results that impact your organization.
To make your team sense-making conversations productive and prevent the “usual suspects” problem, you must practice two key principles.
(1) Question rigorously.
Keep the questions open rather than leaping to solutions and actions too soon. Slow the pace down to allow for thoughtful response instead of instant reaction. Ask open-ended questions to explore each others’ thinking.
(2) Include respectfully.
Ensure that each idea is considered on its own merits, rather than because of who said it. Notice the small habits that may exclude different voices and change them. If you tend to assume that a question has one right answer, challenge that assumption.
These two principles are explored in more detail in my book, The Fourth Factor: Managing Organizational Culture, available through Amazon.
By questioning rigorously and including respectfully, you can create conversations that help your organization make sense of the environment more quickly. These conversations are vital to your organization’s success, especially in this turbulent climate.
read more...
How about spending more of your meeting time in vital and productive conversations about significant issues affecting your organization’s success? What if you could do that instead of more of the usual topics or those boring "report out" sessions that have no impact?
As a leader, you must anticipate threats and opportunities before they slap the organization in the face. To do this, you must take in confusing and conflicting data about the environment from multiple sources and discern the patterns in the data. In other words, your job is to make sense of the ambiguous and contradictory mess of data to anticipate changes. You’ll do this individually sometimes, more often in dialogue with your team. These are conversations that produce results that impact your organization.
To make your team sense-making conversations productive and prevent the “usual suspects” problem, you must practice two key principles.
(1) Question rigorously.
Keep the questions open rather than leaping to solutions and actions too soon. Slow the pace down to allow for thoughtful response instead of instant reaction. Ask open-ended questions to explore each others’ thinking.
(2) Include respectfully.
Ensure that each idea is considered on its own merits, rather than because of who said it. Notice the small habits that may exclude different voices and change them. If you tend to assume that a question has one right answer, challenge that assumption.
These two principles are explored in more detail in my book, The Fourth Factor: Managing Organizational Culture, available through Amazon.
By questioning rigorously and including respectfully, you can create conversations that help your organization make sense of the environment more quickly. These conversations are vital to your organization’s success, especially in this turbulent climate.
Labels: accountability, corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Apple Tops Fortune’s List of Most Admired Companies
The economy is in a mess and the technology sector is suffering badly. Except for Apple. Even with Jobs on medical leave, Apple continues to produce good results. Apple received Fortune Magazine’s “Most Admired Companies” top rank. In the detailed categories, they were #1 for innovation, people management, and quality of goods/services.
You could hardly pick three variables on the list that are more tightly linked. Apple is widely known for creating a climate where employees can be creative. It’s high on Jobs’ list of priorities. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons investors get so nervous about Jobs’ health. He has created a culture where it’s expected that designers are swinging for the fence with new designs.
Creating a healthy culture that supports performance is a key role of the CEO and certainly a central part of people management. It leads to innovation and to quality products/service, the other two “best in class” items in Fortune’s summary for Apple.
As a leader, ask yourself – what am I doing to create a culture that supports my employees in making their absolute best contributions to the organization? If you’re not sure your team is doing everything they should be, ask me about getting a leadership team assessment.
-----------------
The Fourth Factor: Managing Corporate Culture
Available from Amazon.com
read more...
You could hardly pick three variables on the list that are more tightly linked. Apple is widely known for creating a climate where employees can be creative. It’s high on Jobs’ list of priorities. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons investors get so nervous about Jobs’ health. He has created a culture where it’s expected that designers are swinging for the fence with new designs.
Creating a healthy culture that supports performance is a key role of the CEO and certainly a central part of people management. It leads to innovation and to quality products/service, the other two “best in class” items in Fortune’s summary for Apple.
As a leader, ask yourself – what am I doing to create a culture that supports my employees in making their absolute best contributions to the organization? If you’re not sure your team is doing everything they should be, ask me about getting a leadership team assessment.
-----------------
The Fourth Factor: Managing Corporate Culture
Available from Amazon.com
Labels: apple, corporate culture, innovation, leadership
read more...
Can Schultz put the buzz back in Starbucks coffee?
It's happening again – another founder returning to the helm when things aren't going well. Can Schultz do for Starbucks what Jobs has done for Apple?
Today's Wall Street Journal (January 8, 2008) notes that Schultz plans to improve the customer experience and streamline management. His objectives include "re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers." Sure sounds like culture to me.
One of the most common challenges with the transition from the founding CEO to his replacement is that the culture has developed around the CEO's personality, style, and values. Some of that may be conscious and explicit but much of it "just happens." The organization often isn't aware of the specific assets and liabilities of the culture until well into the transition to the new CEO.
In the case of Starbucks, some of the internal practices (aka culture) that made Starbucks a huge success slowly drifted away under new leadership. Like Jobs at Apple, Schultz has a distinct style, his mojo, that helped make the organization successful. Can he reignite the organization with that style? My bet would be yes, he can. And that's a solid start to getting the numbers back on track.
How is your personal leadership style reflected in the way your organization does business? If you had a "culture balance sheet," what would your assets and liabilities be?
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Today's Wall Street Journal (January 8, 2008) notes that Schultz plans to improve the customer experience and streamline management. His objectives include "re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers." Sure sounds like culture to me.
One of the most common challenges with the transition from the founding CEO to his replacement is that the culture has developed around the CEO's personality, style, and values. Some of that may be conscious and explicit but much of it "just happens." The organization often isn't aware of the specific assets and liabilities of the culture until well into the transition to the new CEO.
In the case of Starbucks, some of the internal practices (aka culture) that made Starbucks a huge success slowly drifted away under new leadership. Like Jobs at Apple, Schultz has a distinct style, his mojo, that helped make the organization successful. Can he reignite the organization with that style? My bet would be yes, he can. And that's a solid start to getting the numbers back on track.
How is your personal leadership style reflected in the way your organization does business? If you had a "culture balance sheet," what would your assets and liabilities be?
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Why do we do it?
7:10pm on a Thursday evening. My brain says it's time to stop for the day. You know the feeling – it's harder to express yourself, maybe not so easy to hold three or four balls in the air at once. Studies have shown that after about 9 hours of work, software developers may be introducing more bugs into the code than they are adding value. All of us know what the equivalent feels like in our world.
And yet, we still succumb to the prevailing norm. Work more hours, take on more tasks, multitask more. In this week's Fortune, "Confessions of a CEO" tells the tale of Dominic Orr. Orr spent a couple of decades living as if work was the only thing that mattered. It destroyed his marriage and alienated his kids. Orr is now working on having a life.
Why do we do it? Here are a few possible answers. Post your own thoughts here and let's talk about it.
1. Because everyone else does.
The culture in "corporate America" can be pretty brutal. We feel pressure to answer our email at midnight because we're still getting email from our colleagues and clients at midnight.
2. Because we work in a global economy.
Since our colleagues and clients are often many time zones away, our ability to connect may depend on our willingness to take calls at all hours.
3. Because we don't really look at the cost.
We hear the old saying that nobody ever sat on his deathbed and said, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." But we aren't on our deathbeds and we'd rather not consider what it's costing us to be so focused on work.
I don't have the answers to this puzzle. If I did, most likely I wouldn't be blogging right now; I'd be enjoying a glass of wine with my honey. But I do believe this is a puzzle worth looking at. For each of us individually, for your organization, for society.
Why do you think we do it?
And, if you'll excuse me, it's time for that glass of wine.
read more...
And yet, we still succumb to the prevailing norm. Work more hours, take on more tasks, multitask more. In this week's Fortune, "Confessions of a CEO" tells the tale of Dominic Orr. Orr spent a couple of decades living as if work was the only thing that mattered. It destroyed his marriage and alienated his kids. Orr is now working on having a life.
Why do we do it? Here are a few possible answers. Post your own thoughts here and let's talk about it.
1. Because everyone else does.
The culture in "corporate America" can be pretty brutal. We feel pressure to answer our email at midnight because we're still getting email from our colleagues and clients at midnight.
2. Because we work in a global economy.
Since our colleagues and clients are often many time zones away, our ability to connect may depend on our willingness to take calls at all hours.
3. Because we don't really look at the cost.
We hear the old saying that nobody ever sat on his deathbed and said, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." But we aren't on our deathbeds and we'd rather not consider what it's costing us to be so focused on work.
I don't have the answers to this puzzle. If I did, most likely I wouldn't be blogging right now; I'd be enjoying a glass of wine with my honey. But I do believe this is a puzzle worth looking at. For each of us individually, for your organization, for society.
Why do you think we do it?
And, if you'll excuse me, it's time for that glass of wine.
Labels: corporate culture, leadership, questions
read more...
Apple's passionate commitment to the user experience
"Apple Needs a Nikon," declares John Gruber. His argument is that if we had another technology company that understood "emotional design," the competition between that company and Apple would help Apple create even better products, as the rivalry between Canon and Nikon helps produce better cameras. I agree.
The world of PC's and smart phones is currently ruled by companies who are focused first and foremost on technology. Only Apple seems to care about the user experience above all else. From the first Apple computers, Apple has been focused on how we feel using their products. Are we comfortable and engaged or are we struggling and alienated?
My first home computer was an Apple in the mid-1980s. I loved it and so did my five year old son. My first experience with the iPhone 20 years later was similar. Apple gets it.
Gruber suggests that anyone who wants to compete with Apple should copy their culture. But it's not that easy. Many companies have tried co copy the fun yet high efficiency culture at Southwest Airlines but the efforts usually fail. Culture is very hard to copy. It's like trying to mimic someone else's personality – the results are usually comical at best.
If a company wants to enter the "emotional design" space with Apple, they will need to grow their own culture, starting with a passionate commitment to the way it feels to use their product. Think BMW – it's all about the "driving experience." Then the company's leaders must consciously build an organization that caters to that passion above all else. That's what it takes to compete in Apple's space, not a me-too iPod like Zune or a look-alike touch screen phone.
It's all about The Fourth Factor – culture. Products, customers, and cash are essential but culture trumps them all. It's a truly sustainable competitive advantage.
How's your organization creating a sustainable competitive advantage with culture?
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
The world of PC's and smart phones is currently ruled by companies who are focused first and foremost on technology. Only Apple seems to care about the user experience above all else. From the first Apple computers, Apple has been focused on how we feel using their products. Are we comfortable and engaged or are we struggling and alienated?
My first home computer was an Apple in the mid-1980s. I loved it and so did my five year old son. My first experience with the iPhone 20 years later was similar. Apple gets it.
Gruber suggests that anyone who wants to compete with Apple should copy their culture. But it's not that easy. Many companies have tried co copy the fun yet high efficiency culture at Southwest Airlines but the efforts usually fail. Culture is very hard to copy. It's like trying to mimic someone else's personality – the results are usually comical at best.
If a company wants to enter the "emotional design" space with Apple, they will need to grow their own culture, starting with a passionate commitment to the way it feels to use their product. Think BMW – it's all about the "driving experience." Then the company's leaders must consciously build an organization that caters to that passion above all else. That's what it takes to compete in Apple's space, not a me-too iPod like Zune or a look-alike touch screen phone.
It's all about The Fourth Factor – culture. Products, customers, and cash are essential but culture trumps them all. It's a truly sustainable competitive advantage.
How's your organization creating a sustainable competitive advantage with culture?
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: apple, corporate culture
read more...
The Fourth Factor is here!
I'm so excited to tell you that my new book, The Fourth Factor: Managing Corporate Culture, is here! It's available on Amazon and at other retailers. The celebration is Thursday, November 1. If you're in the Austin area and would like to come, just drop me a note (see the Contact page of the website) and I'll send you the details.
Now that the book is on Amazon, I'd love to have more reviews. The first 3 people to send me a link to their review of the paperback edition of the book before November 6 will get a free FlashDeck of the 800 pound Gorilla ($14.97 value – see http://www.fordbusinessconsulting.com/ecommerce/flashdeck.html for more details.) Just go to the Amazon book page, scroll down to "Customer Reviews" and and click on "write your own review."
Here's a short excerpt from the book that talks about the Gorilla's Guide and its impact on employee behavior. Download a sample chapter now!
EXCERPT
So much of culture is outside of our awareness. You and your employees often behave the way you do out of habit, in unconscious conformance with the culture. It takes repetition of the new behaviors over time to make a shift in the culture. Everyone needs to see evidence of the messages in action over and over.
It’s a little like watching a mystery movie. You’re not quite sure who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. Little snippets provide clues; then there is the scene where two people exchange a glance, and you understand what’s going on. Without the earlier clues, it wouldn’t have made sense; each glimpse seeded the idea. It’s all about consistency and repetition.
Events and stories work the same way in the Gorilla’s Guide. Each one builds on another as the pattern emerges. It’s essential that you develop consistency across both formal and informal systems so there is a preponderance of stories that support the directives. The mutually reinforcing interaction between the Gorilla’s Guide and behavior makes culture self-perpetuating. That’s why it’s so essential that your official and informal systems reflect the directives consistently.
Buy the book on Amazon today!
read more...
Now that the book is on Amazon, I'd love to have more reviews. The first 3 people to send me a link to their review of the paperback edition of the book before November 6 will get a free FlashDeck of the 800 pound Gorilla ($14.97 value – see http://www.fordbusinessconsulting.com/ecommerce/flashdeck.html for more details.) Just go to the Amazon book page, scroll down to "Customer Reviews" and and click on "write your own review."
Here's a short excerpt from the book that talks about the Gorilla's Guide and its impact on employee behavior. Download a sample chapter now!
EXCERPT
So much of culture is outside of our awareness. You and your employees often behave the way you do out of habit, in unconscious conformance with the culture. It takes repetition of the new behaviors over time to make a shift in the culture. Everyone needs to see evidence of the messages in action over and over.
It’s a little like watching a mystery movie. You’re not quite sure who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. Little snippets provide clues; then there is the scene where two people exchange a glance, and you understand what’s going on. Without the earlier clues, it wouldn’t have made sense; each glimpse seeded the idea. It’s all about consistency and repetition.
Events and stories work the same way in the Gorilla’s Guide. Each one builds on another as the pattern emerges. It’s essential that you develop consistency across both formal and informal systems so there is a preponderance of stories that support the directives. The mutually reinforcing interaction between the Gorilla’s Guide and behavior makes culture self-perpetuating. That’s why it’s so essential that your official and informal systems reflect the directives consistently.
Buy the book on Amazon today!
Labels: corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Leadership - it's not about the rules!
Today's Wall Street Journal (Oct. 23, 2007) has a short note about companies that forbid the use of email on certain days as a way of forcing employees to have work/life balance. Readers responded with both sides of the argument.
Here's a simpler and more flexible strategy. Use your leadership to set the tone.
If you send employees emails on weekends and evenings, there is an unspoken message that an after-hours response is required. Do that enough and pretty soon everyone knows that you've got to check your email day and night. So, unless your message is truly urgent, hold that email until the start of the workday. If you really need to handle your own email during non-work hours because of your schedule commitments, compose your messages but don’t' send them till work hours. (And do ask yourself if you really have to do email in the evenings or if you want to consider a little work/life balance improvement of your own.)
If you and other leaders in your organization hold off on non-work time emails consistently over time, employees will feel less pressured to handle business emails during evenings and weekends. That way, they can make their own choices about work/life balance.
What habits have developed in your organization that concern you? Drop me a note and I'll talk about the most interesting ones in future columns (without identifying you of course).
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Here's a simpler and more flexible strategy. Use your leadership to set the tone.
If you send employees emails on weekends and evenings, there is an unspoken message that an after-hours response is required. Do that enough and pretty soon everyone knows that you've got to check your email day and night. So, unless your message is truly urgent, hold that email until the start of the workday. If you really need to handle your own email during non-work hours because of your schedule commitments, compose your messages but don’t' send them till work hours. (And do ask yourself if you really have to do email in the evenings or if you want to consider a little work/life balance improvement of your own.)
If you and other leaders in your organization hold off on non-work time emails consistently over time, employees will feel less pressured to handle business emails during evenings and weekends. That way, they can make their own choices about work/life balance.
What habits have developed in your organization that concern you? Drop me a note and I'll talk about the most interesting ones in future columns (without identifying you of course).
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Performance Feedback - it's up to you!
OK, I've been traveling a lot these days. You know what that means --- I'm reading USA Today because that's the paper that shows up on my doorstep at the hotels.
Today I read that only 39% of companies provide formal performance feedback on a quarterly or biannual basis. The rest provide annual feedback or none at all. The good news is that's up from 29% five years ago. The bad news is that organizations are leaving a lot of potential on the table by passing up so many good opportunities to improve performance. Frequent and open dialogue about strengths and weaknesses is vital to your organization's success.
Regardless of the rhythm of your company's formal system, how often do you have a focused one-on-one dialogue with members of your team about their successes and their development opportunities?
I challenge you to find the time to have that conversation at least once a month and see what a difference it makes. Let me know how it goes.
read more...
Today I read that only 39% of companies provide formal performance feedback on a quarterly or biannual basis. The rest provide annual feedback or none at all. The good news is that's up from 29% five years ago. The bad news is that organizations are leaving a lot of potential on the table by passing up so many good opportunities to improve performance. Frequent and open dialogue about strengths and weaknesses is vital to your organization's success.
Regardless of the rhythm of your company's formal system, how often do you have a focused one-on-one dialogue with members of your team about their successes and their development opportunities?
I challenge you to find the time to have that conversation at least once a month and see what a difference it makes. Let me know how it goes.
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership, learning
read more...
Leadership and Inclusion - The Labyrinth
Alice Eagly and Linda Carli tell us that it's not a glass ceiling but a labyrinth that blocks women's rise up the corporate ladder (September, 2007, Harvard Business Review). This shift in metaphors is more than just an image issue. The authors give us a bird's eye view of a labyrinth with more subtly and nuance than the glass ceiling metaphor suggests.
Two things are missing from their approach, however.
(1) Learning from what works.
The article opens with some appalling statistics. For example, in Fortune 500 corporations, only 6% of C-level jobs are held by women and in the European Union countries, it's 11%. Hey, wait a minute! That's almost twice the Fortune 500 figure. Now I'm not saying that 11% is great, but when your own score stinks and "best in class" is 2X your success rate, you gotta figure you can learn a few things from the other guys.
European countries have had female heads of state for quite sometime while in the US we struggle with whether a woman is "electable" in the bid for the presidency. Let's do some serious exploration of what the EU companies seem to know about women in management that we in the US don't yet know.
(2) Taking personal action.
While the authors list what "management" can do about the issue (which I applaud), they seem to ignore what individual women can do for their own careers. For example, they identify women's lack of attention to building social capital as an issue. Yes, it is key. This is an area where each of us makes her own choices about priorities. By saying "yes" to too many requests, women leave themselves without time to build the relationships that will help them advance. We don't need to wait for management to act before we change that.
The practices that exclude women (as well as other minorities) from access to top roles in organizations are both subtle and overt. I applaud Eagly and Carli for broadening our view of this vital issue.
My new book, THE FOURTH FACTOR: Managing Corporate Culture, includes a chapter on creating a more inclusive workplace. Watch this blog for more information on the book release in October.
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Two things are missing from their approach, however.
(1) Learning from what works.
The article opens with some appalling statistics. For example, in Fortune 500 corporations, only 6% of C-level jobs are held by women and in the European Union countries, it's 11%. Hey, wait a minute! That's almost twice the Fortune 500 figure. Now I'm not saying that 11% is great, but when your own score stinks and "best in class" is 2X your success rate, you gotta figure you can learn a few things from the other guys.
European countries have had female heads of state for quite sometime while in the US we struggle with whether a woman is "electable" in the bid for the presidency. Let's do some serious exploration of what the EU companies seem to know about women in management that we in the US don't yet know.
(2) Taking personal action.
While the authors list what "management" can do about the issue (which I applaud), they seem to ignore what individual women can do for their own careers. For example, they identify women's lack of attention to building social capital as an issue. Yes, it is key. This is an area where each of us makes her own choices about priorities. By saying "yes" to too many requests, women leave themselves without time to build the relationships that will help them advance. We don't need to wait for management to act before we change that.
The practices that exclude women (as well as other minorities) from access to top roles in organizations are both subtle and overt. I applaud Eagly and Carli for broadening our view of this vital issue.
My new book, THE FOURTH FACTOR: Managing Corporate Culture, includes a chapter on creating a more inclusive workplace. Watch this blog for more information on the book release in October.
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, inclusion, leadership
read more...
Friendly Skies? It's not in the culture.
Today's Wall Street Journal (Aug. 28, 2007) ran an interesting piece about Capt. Flanagan who "goes to bat for his harried passengers." I was struck by how ordinary his actions would be if he worked for Southwest Airlines. Why is his behavior front page news? Only because it's not the norm at United. The difference? Culture.
At Southwest, friendliness and creativity are just part of the job. Flight attendants, pilots, baggage handlers, gate agents. They all "get it" that these things matter. There is a box of "Fun-LUVing MINTality" mints sitting on my desk. I happened to be flying from Dallas to Austin on Friday over a holiday weekend and a Southwest employee was bouncing through the terminal, handing out these mints. It made me smile. Smiles matter at Southwest.
Capt. Flanagan is flying in the face of a different culture. He's decided that no matter what the norms are, he wants his job to be fun and his passengers to be happy. He cracks jokes and goes out of his way to meet his passengers' needs. He seems to have some nominal support from management. They pay for some of the goodies he gives away. The "Chief Customer Officer" commends his efforts. But when the WSJ article talks about what the CSO is doing to "boost customer service," the main item mentioned is technology improvements to give employees more information about delays and problems.
Nice idea but it won't change the culture. The 800 pound Gorilla at UAL knows that smiles don't matter. Until that changes, the technology won't help much. Leaders must truly value customer relations. When leaders at UAL (both formal and informal) are telling the stories of how great Capt. Flanagan is, bonuses and raises are based on customer satisfaction, senior executive meetings start with a discussion of customer relations, hiring is based on customer focus and people skills --- then UAL might get back to being the Friendly Skies.
Does your company have a Fun-LUVing Mintality? Or is there something else distinctively wonderful about your culture that provides a competitive edge? I'd love to hear what you're doing to maintain that.
Linda Ford
read more...
At Southwest, friendliness and creativity are just part of the job. Flight attendants, pilots, baggage handlers, gate agents. They all "get it" that these things matter. There is a box of "Fun-LUVing MINTality" mints sitting on my desk. I happened to be flying from Dallas to Austin on Friday over a holiday weekend and a Southwest employee was bouncing through the terminal, handing out these mints. It made me smile. Smiles matter at Southwest.
Capt. Flanagan is flying in the face of a different culture. He's decided that no matter what the norms are, he wants his job to be fun and his passengers to be happy. He cracks jokes and goes out of his way to meet his passengers' needs. He seems to have some nominal support from management. They pay for some of the goodies he gives away. The "Chief Customer Officer" commends his efforts. But when the WSJ article talks about what the CSO is doing to "boost customer service," the main item mentioned is technology improvements to give employees more information about delays and problems.
Nice idea but it won't change the culture. The 800 pound Gorilla at UAL knows that smiles don't matter. Until that changes, the technology won't help much. Leaders must truly value customer relations. When leaders at UAL (both formal and informal) are telling the stories of how great Capt. Flanagan is, bonuses and raises are based on customer satisfaction, senior executive meetings start with a discussion of customer relations, hiring is based on customer focus and people skills --- then UAL might get back to being the Friendly Skies.
Does your company have a Fun-LUVing Mintality? Or is there something else distinctively wonderful about your culture that provides a competitive edge? I'd love to hear what you're doing to maintain that.
Linda Ford
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership, strategy
read more...
Which leader would you follow?
Sunday's Austin, TX business news has two very different stories of leadership.
On the front page of the business section of the Statesman, you get Scott Harmon (Motive CEO till 2006) with a "zeal for pushing the limits." Sure, that can be a good thing. If fledgling technology companies never pushed the limits, would we have Google, YouTube, or even PC's? And yet, word is that Motive's culture was ruthlessly competitive, pushing the limits of ethics as often as the limits of technology. All of this pushing has resulted in accusations of improper accounting and questionable management practices. Yes, you can get short-term results this way, but can you build value for the long term?
Let's contrast that with Jeff Opdyke's "Love and Money" column Sunday. Opdyke shares the saga of a rash promise to his ten year old son, made in a moment of pressure and distraction. His son feels he lied; his wife says he disrupted the parental united front. Ultimately Opdyke has to come clean with his son. He shares with his son the vulnerable feeling of having made a mistake, having said something he can't follow through on. He listens to his son's point of view. And he makes amends.
Give me a peek into how a person handles the challenges of parenting and I can tell you a lot about his leadership. Both parenting and leading an organization can quickly turn into pressure cookers, testing your values and integrity. How do you handle those pressures?
I'll take Opdyke's flavor of leadership over Harmon's any day!
read more...
On the front page of the business section of the Statesman, you get Scott Harmon (Motive CEO till 2006) with a "zeal for pushing the limits." Sure, that can be a good thing. If fledgling technology companies never pushed the limits, would we have Google, YouTube, or even PC's? And yet, word is that Motive's culture was ruthlessly competitive, pushing the limits of ethics as often as the limits of technology. All of this pushing has resulted in accusations of improper accounting and questionable management practices. Yes, you can get short-term results this way, but can you build value for the long term?
Let's contrast that with Jeff Opdyke's "Love and Money" column Sunday. Opdyke shares the saga of a rash promise to his ten year old son, made in a moment of pressure and distraction. His son feels he lied; his wife says he disrupted the parental united front. Ultimately Opdyke has to come clean with his son. He shares with his son the vulnerable feeling of having made a mistake, having said something he can't follow through on. He listens to his son's point of view. And he makes amends.
Give me a peek into how a person handles the challenges of parenting and I can tell you a lot about his leadership. Both parenting and leading an organization can quickly turn into pressure cookers, testing your values and integrity. How do you handle those pressures?
I'll take Opdyke's flavor of leadership over Harmon's any day!
Labels: corporate culture, leadership
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The Customer Experience and Culture
I often like to take care of an errand during my morning walk. It saves on gas and gives the walk a direction and purpose. This morning, I decided to walk over to the bank to close my account, having recently changed to a new bank. I looked on the web to see what time the branch opened - 7:30am. I arrived at the bank at 8:15 to find that only the drive-up opens at 7:30; the lobby opens at 9:00. Fine, I thought. The drive-up teller can probably close the account for me. Through a speaker that made it hard to hear with a video screen that showed only part of her face, the teller informed me that she couldn’t close the account. She didn’t apologize for my inconvenience; she just told me to come back when the lobby is open.
Part of why I am closing the account is that I’ve found this bank (like so many others) to be very inhuman. The people just don’t seem to care. My experience this morning validated that impression.
I’m just one customer and this is a large bank. I doubt I’ll be missed. But, how many of us are there, walking away from this bank because of the quality of our experience with the staff?
It’s all in the culture. This bank’s culture - that 800 Pound Gorilla that does whatever it wants to - tells employees that there is no need to bother with customer relationships. Their Gorilla cares more about the transaction than the relationship. This customer is taking her business elsewhere because of that Gorilla.
Is your Gorilla driving customers away or bringing them closer? Is your Gorilla costing you money or earning you higher profits?
For monthly tips on taming your 800 Pound Gorilla, subscribe to my free ezine.
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Part of why I am closing the account is that I’ve found this bank (like so many others) to be very inhuman. The people just don’t seem to care. My experience this morning validated that impression.
I’m just one customer and this is a large bank. I doubt I’ll be missed. But, how many of us are there, walking away from this bank because of the quality of our experience with the staff?
It’s all in the culture. This bank’s culture - that 800 Pound Gorilla that does whatever it wants to - tells employees that there is no need to bother with customer relationships. Their Gorilla cares more about the transaction than the relationship. This customer is taking her business elsewhere because of that Gorilla.
Is your Gorilla driving customers away or bringing them closer? Is your Gorilla costing you money or earning you higher profits?
For monthly tips on taming your 800 Pound Gorilla, subscribe to my free ezine.
Labels: corporate culture, leadership, stakeholders
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Circuit City - You call that leadership?
Yesterday, Circuit City announced that it plans to lay off over 8% of its in-store staff and replace them with lower paid employees. Seems their current staff were earning more than market rates.
Here is the question for Circuit City:
You are #2 in your market, behind Best Buy. Best Buy's leadership continues to invest in making their company a fun place to work and shop. Do you think you can pass them and be #1 in your market when your employees really don't want to be there and will leave for a better opportunity when they can?
My answer?
Not likely. Look at great companies like Southwest Airlines who understand that happy employees make for happy customer. Check out the growth of 1-800-Got-Junk?, with a key slogan of "It's all about people." Companies like these can create a market and then dominate it because the people are invested in the success of the company, not because they can hire cheaper labor than their competitors.
Circuit City's move is short-sighted. While I admire their honesty about the reasons, it's not likely to fuel their growth or help them be #1 in their market.
And, a footnote. You gotta wonder how those employees' salaries got out of line? I'm thinking there were some management decisions and processes involved there, right? Maybe instead of firing the people, Circuit City needs to fix the processes, leadership, and culture issues.
Many executives think they can succeed by managing finances, products, and customers. What they fail to see is that the fourth factor -- culture -- can undo their best efforts in managing the first three factors. Circuit City has just declared their willingness to fall into that abyss.
Linda Ford, PhD
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Here is the question for Circuit City:
You are #2 in your market, behind Best Buy. Best Buy's leadership continues to invest in making their company a fun place to work and shop. Do you think you can pass them and be #1 in your market when your employees really don't want to be there and will leave for a better opportunity when they can?
My answer?
Not likely. Look at great companies like Southwest Airlines who understand that happy employees make for happy customer. Check out the growth of 1-800-Got-Junk?, with a key slogan of "It's all about people." Companies like these can create a market and then dominate it because the people are invested in the success of the company, not because they can hire cheaper labor than their competitors.
Circuit City's move is short-sighted. While I admire their honesty about the reasons, it's not likely to fuel their growth or help them be #1 in their market.
And, a footnote. You gotta wonder how those employees' salaries got out of line? I'm thinking there were some management decisions and processes involved there, right? Maybe instead of firing the people, Circuit City needs to fix the processes, leadership, and culture issues.
Many executives think they can succeed by managing finances, products, and customers. What they fail to see is that the fourth factor -- culture -- can undo their best efforts in managing the first three factors. Circuit City has just declared their willingness to fall into that abyss.
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership
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Culture and Branding
The kids at Cold Stone creamery sing when you put a tip in the jar. Have your birthday dinner at Macaroni Grill and you're likely to get a well-trained operatic "Happy Birthday" at your table. Board a Southwest Airlines flight and you might just get a singing rendition of the safety rules. How are these situations similar?
According to NPR's "Marketplace," the kids serving ice cream at the first ever Cold Stone Creamery started singing their thanks for tips. At that first store, it was spontaneous fun. Now it's been institutionalized; it's an official part of the culture. Cold Stone does what any organization that is serious about culture should do. They ensure a fit with the culture when they hire. Yes, if you want to scoop ice cream at Cold Stone, you'll have to audition. An area manager says the audition is necessary because "we expect you to belt one out." And if you can't? "You can't stay here," says the manager.
Maybe singing when customers tip is part of the brand, part of the essential identity of Cold Stone Creamery. You may be tempted to compare this to the quirky humor you get for free on your Southwest Airlines flight. For Southwest, fun is definitely part of the brand. There is a key difference, however, in the implementation. Southwest doesn't force any particular kind of fun. One flight attendant may, in fact, sing the safety warnings. Another may do it as a stand-up comedy routine. A third may just deliver the official message in the same bland voice other airlines use but when you board, she'll have a smile that makes you want to hug her.
The difference I see in these stories is the choice what to institutionalize. If fun is part of the brand, then that's what should be institutionalized, not a specific behavior. If Cold Stone wants to be branded as the ice cream shop that sings, their "audition" strategy is probably smart. However, if they are looking to make their ice cream shops fun and quirky, they've gone the wrong direction. They've made a particular form of fun mandatory. That just takes the fun right out of it.
Linda Ford, PhD
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According to NPR's "Marketplace," the kids serving ice cream at the first ever Cold Stone Creamery started singing their thanks for tips. At that first store, it was spontaneous fun. Now it's been institutionalized; it's an official part of the culture. Cold Stone does what any organization that is serious about culture should do. They ensure a fit with the culture when they hire. Yes, if you want to scoop ice cream at Cold Stone, you'll have to audition. An area manager says the audition is necessary because "we expect you to belt one out." And if you can't? "You can't stay here," says the manager.
Maybe singing when customers tip is part of the brand, part of the essential identity of Cold Stone Creamery. You may be tempted to compare this to the quirky humor you get for free on your Southwest Airlines flight. For Southwest, fun is definitely part of the brand. There is a key difference, however, in the implementation. Southwest doesn't force any particular kind of fun. One flight attendant may, in fact, sing the safety warnings. Another may do it as a stand-up comedy routine. A third may just deliver the official message in the same bland voice other airlines use but when you board, she'll have a smile that makes you want to hug her.
The difference I see in these stories is the choice what to institutionalize. If fun is part of the brand, then that's what should be institutionalized, not a specific behavior. If Cold Stone wants to be branded as the ice cream shop that sings, their "audition" strategy is probably smart. However, if they are looking to make their ice cream shops fun and quirky, they've gone the wrong direction. They've made a particular form of fun mandatory. That just takes the fun right out of it.
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, leadership
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Management advice from the union boss
Today's Wall Street Journal had a special "Boss Talk" section in which half a dozen CEO's were interviewed and provided tips on management. One of those was Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Stern's tips for "how labor and management can work together better" are very applicable to managers in any organization, union shop or not.
Here they are, quoted directly from the article.
Tip 1 - Relationships are not a matter of chance, they are a matter of choice.
Tip 2 - Approach partnerships by making finding a solution a higher priority than placing blame.
Tip 3 - Learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
Tip 4 - Offer incentives that encourage others to take risks.
Tip 5 - Keep an open mind rather than an open mouth, be willing to change, and keep focused on shared goals.
What if your organization's culture (that 800 pound Gorilla) had all of these "tips" hardwired into the organization? Could be a pretty great place to work! This would be a culture where people matter. It would be an environment where "conflict" doesn't mean a shouting match. Flexibility would be built into the system. (Visit www.TameTheGorilla.com for free resources to improve your culture.)
Kudo's to Mr. Stern - if we could all work together this way, we'd get a whole lot more done with a whole lot less stress!
By Linda Ford, PhD
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Here they are, quoted directly from the article.
Tip 1 - Relationships are not a matter of chance, they are a matter of choice.
Tip 2 - Approach partnerships by making finding a solution a higher priority than placing blame.
Tip 3 - Learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
Tip 4 - Offer incentives that encourage others to take risks.
Tip 5 - Keep an open mind rather than an open mouth, be willing to change, and keep focused on shared goals.
What if your organization's culture (that 800 pound Gorilla) had all of these "tips" hardwired into the organization? Could be a pretty great place to work! This would be a culture where people matter. It would be an environment where "conflict" doesn't mean a shouting match. Flexibility would be built into the system. (Visit www.TameTheGorilla.com for free resources to improve your culture.)
Kudo's to Mr. Stern - if we could all work together this way, we'd get a whole lot more done with a whole lot less stress!
By Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, leadership
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Crossing the Cultural Divide - Apple & Cingular/AT&T?
Hip and edgy Apple has decided to dance with Cingular (as in, stodgy old AT&T). The revolutionary meets the regulated monopoly. Will this be like "Bambi meets Godzilla?" Not likely, but there are some significant challenges in the alliance.
If you want a visual image of the difference, check out the story on Inside Bay Area. In the accompanying photo, you can just feel the difference between Jobs and Sigman (Cingular CEO).
Here are a few elements of culture that could trouble this alliance.
Decision making
Apple has demonstrated its willingness to move quickly to be the market leader, sometimes at the cost of putting the wrong product out in the market. (Anyone remember the Apple II?) AT&T (Cingular's parent) is more known for the slow, lumbering moves appropriate to a giant.
Customer care
Early customers may very well get caught in the middle as the Cingular service reps declare the problem to be an iPhone technical issue while Apple declares it a Cingular phone service issue. Which set of policies and systems will prevail as the inevitable early glitches occur? Will the customers survive the battle?
Innovation
AT&T's enthusiasm for investments in technology may not keep pace with Apple's. Steve Jobs built Apple on his willingness to invest in leading edge (and sometimes bleeding edge) technology. With product life cycles measured in months in the cell phone industry, that mismatch could spell trouble for the collaboration.
Brand identity
Apple rarely co-brands its products. Cingular is returning to the AT&T brand. What does all of this mean to the iPhone? To say nothing of the Cisco lawsuit over the iPhone name! Trouble ahead on this front for sure. How will these two very different cultures tackle this tricky tangle?
Communication
I know - this is a communication device. But can the executives who have to hold the deal together make it work? The possibilities for miscommunication and misunderstood expectations are boundless. All of the things that are left unsaid in the course of normal business communication are possible sources for misunderstanding. Executives on each side of the deal will make their own assumptions about what was and wasn't said, likely without even realizing they are making assumptions.
This whole affair calls to mind cartoons from the 1950s showing a flustered telephone switchboard operator with wires all tangled and crossed. Can't you just picture the iPhone caught in that tangle of wires? However, all of that said, this is an exciting step in the media and communications world and it could be the start of some interesting developments.
By Linda Ford, PhD
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If you want a visual image of the difference, check out the story on Inside Bay Area. In the accompanying photo, you can just feel the difference between Jobs and Sigman (Cingular CEO).
Here are a few elements of culture that could trouble this alliance.
Decision making
Apple has demonstrated its willingness to move quickly to be the market leader, sometimes at the cost of putting the wrong product out in the market. (Anyone remember the Apple II?) AT&T (Cingular's parent) is more known for the slow, lumbering moves appropriate to a giant.
Customer care
Early customers may very well get caught in the middle as the Cingular service reps declare the problem to be an iPhone technical issue while Apple declares it a Cingular phone service issue. Which set of policies and systems will prevail as the inevitable early glitches occur? Will the customers survive the battle?
Innovation
AT&T's enthusiasm for investments in technology may not keep pace with Apple's. Steve Jobs built Apple on his willingness to invest in leading edge (and sometimes bleeding edge) technology. With product life cycles measured in months in the cell phone industry, that mismatch could spell trouble for the collaboration.
Brand identity
Apple rarely co-brands its products. Cingular is returning to the AT&T brand. What does all of this mean to the iPhone? To say nothing of the Cisco lawsuit over the iPhone name! Trouble ahead on this front for sure. How will these two very different cultures tackle this tricky tangle?
Communication
I know - this is a communication device. But can the executives who have to hold the deal together make it work? The possibilities for miscommunication and misunderstood expectations are boundless. All of the things that are left unsaid in the course of normal business communication are possible sources for misunderstanding. Executives on each side of the deal will make their own assumptions about what was and wasn't said, likely without even realizing they are making assumptions.
This whole affair calls to mind cartoons from the 1950s showing a flustered telephone switchboard operator with wires all tangled and crossed. Can't you just picture the iPhone caught in that tangle of wires? However, all of that said, this is an exciting step in the media and communications world and it could be the start of some interesting developments.
By Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, leadership, stakeholders
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Strategy isn't enough
If you haven't read Blue Ocean Strategy (by Kim and Mauborgne), put it on your New Year's reading list. The authors have created an analytical framework for discovering and evaluating opportunities for discontinuous change. A careful read of this book is likely to cause you to ask some new questions about your business. And that's a great start toward finding new answers.
The only complaint I have is the authors' neglect of - you guessed - culture. They devote a chapter to the topic of building execution into strategy. Good start - that's a vital area. However that chapter focuses only on "three E principles of fair process." These are engagement, explanation, and expectation clarity. Again a good start. Fair process is key. But it's not enough.
Getting your culture (the 800 Pound Gorilla) to support your strategy requires more than fair process. Expectation clarity is the beginning, not the end. As a leader, you need to model the new expectations, actively examining your own actions to ensure alignment with the strategy at the deepest level. Learn more about this in my free e-book. Then look at all of your systems and processes (both formal and informal) to be sure they support the kind of culture that you need to successfully execute your strategy.
Speaking of execution, that's our topic for the January, 2007 teleseminar - "Top 10 Ways the Gorilla Blocks Execution (and how to overcome them)." If you have a favorite for this list, drop me a note (Linda@FordBusinessConsulting.com). Then tune in to see if it makes my Top 10 list.
Get started with your Gorilla today. Identify three day-to-day behaviors that are essential to the success of your strategy. Get specific here - not "good customer support" but "proactively communicating customer issues." Now look at your systems - organization structure, performance appraisals, and staff meeting agendas for starters. Are those systems designed to create the behaviors you need to make your strategy work? If not, your Gorilla likely won't get the message. This represents a significant risk to your strategy!
Linda Ford, PhD
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The only complaint I have is the authors' neglect of - you guessed - culture. They devote a chapter to the topic of building execution into strategy. Good start - that's a vital area. However that chapter focuses only on "three E principles of fair process." These are engagement, explanation, and expectation clarity. Again a good start. Fair process is key. But it's not enough.
Getting your culture (the 800 Pound Gorilla) to support your strategy requires more than fair process. Expectation clarity is the beginning, not the end. As a leader, you need to model the new expectations, actively examining your own actions to ensure alignment with the strategy at the deepest level. Learn more about this in my free e-book. Then look at all of your systems and processes (both formal and informal) to be sure they support the kind of culture that you need to successfully execute your strategy.
Speaking of execution, that's our topic for the January, 2007 teleseminar - "Top 10 Ways the Gorilla Blocks Execution (and how to overcome them)." If you have a favorite for this list, drop me a note (Linda@FordBusinessConsulting.com). Then tune in to see if it makes my Top 10 list.
Get started with your Gorilla today. Identify three day-to-day behaviors that are essential to the success of your strategy. Get specific here - not "good customer support" but "proactively communicating customer issues." Now look at your systems - organization structure, performance appraisals, and staff meeting agendas for starters. Are those systems designed to create the behaviors you need to make your strategy work? If not, your Gorilla likely won't get the message. This represents a significant risk to your strategy!
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, execution, strategy
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Sales culture - Play a bigger game
Bill Caskey's holiday blog took on the issue of sales reps who are too focused on themselves to really engage with the client.
I think he's right on target. Here's what baffles me. Why is it that many sales managers who "get" that their reps need to focus on the customer, not their own needs still foster cultures in their own sales organization where "it's all about me" is the norm? It's all about MY commission, MY territory, MY deal. If they expect their reps to have a bigger view in the field, they need to build a culture with a bigger view.
One of my current clients (VP of sales in a tech company) has a good spin on this. Whenever he sends out emails to the field, there is almost always something about doing for others. A report on a sales rep who volunteers in a local school or an invitation to participate in a "Hands on Housing" type initiative, etc. These little reminders don't take much time or airspace but they do counteract the standard sales culture of "it's all about me." They let sales reps know that the boss plays a bigger game and expects them to join him in that bigger game.
Sales leaders and exec's need to find more ways to help sales reps hold a bigger view of their job. Then it's easier to remember that the sales call is all about the prospect and escape from the ego driven "it's all about me" mindset.
How do you encourage folks in your organization to get outside their own needs and play a bigger game? Post your ideas and comments here.
Linda Ford, PhD
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I think he's right on target. Here's what baffles me. Why is it that many sales managers who "get" that their reps need to focus on the customer, not their own needs still foster cultures in their own sales organization where "it's all about me" is the norm? It's all about MY commission, MY territory, MY deal. If they expect their reps to have a bigger view in the field, they need to build a culture with a bigger view.
One of my current clients (VP of sales in a tech company) has a good spin on this. Whenever he sends out emails to the field, there is almost always something about doing for others. A report on a sales rep who volunteers in a local school or an invitation to participate in a "Hands on Housing" type initiative, etc. These little reminders don't take much time or airspace but they do counteract the standard sales culture of "it's all about me." They let sales reps know that the boss plays a bigger game and expects them to join him in that bigger game.
Sales leaders and exec's need to find more ways to help sales reps hold a bigger view of their job. Then it's easier to remember that the sales call is all about the prospect and escape from the ego driven "it's all about me" mindset.
How do you encourage folks in your organization to get outside their own needs and play a bigger game? Post your ideas and comments here.
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, sales
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McDonald's focus on better not bigger
Kudo's to Jim Skinner (McDonald's CEO) for tackling an issue that many CEO's just won't touch - what Skinner calls "the growth story." (See Wall Street Journal article.) He has gotten a number of things right in his approach to this issue.
(1) Skinner recognizes that change in an organization of this size will take time.
(2) He is clear that McDonald's needs to remember its core business - "We have to remember who we are … a hamburger company."
(3) In his "Tips for managing a turnaround," Skinner puts a focus on people at the top of the list.
And still he has missed the 800 pound Gorilla - corporate culture. There are two aspects to Skinner's turnaround that will require significant culture change in the organization.
First, he is intent on shifting the focus from bigger to better. When an organization has focused on bigger for many decades, getting attention for better takes more than just a plan and new metrics. Skinner will have to embed the focus on better in every aspect of culture. Of course metrics, plans, and policies are a part of that. But culture shapes behavior more than policy and structure shape behavior. Just saying it is so doesn't make it so. When culture and policy are in conflict, culture wins every time. If Skinner doesn't work as diligently on the informal drivers of culture as he does on policies and metrics, the Gorilla just may sink his plan.
Second, Skinner is shifting the focus from burger to choice. The McDonald's menu and marketing messages have been driving this shift for several years. And yet I have to ask whether the managers and executives all over the organization really live and breathe choice or whether they still think in terms of "4 billion burgers served?" It's one thing to change the marketing message and yet another thing to get everyone inside the organization to wake up thinking about choices for consumers.
So, Mr. Skinner, you've clearly taken on the Gorilla at McDonald's. And as you've pointed out, this is a very large organization so its Gorilla will be very large too. Don't forget to tame the Gorilla while you're working the plan.
By Linda Ford, PhD
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(1) Skinner recognizes that change in an organization of this size will take time.
(2) He is clear that McDonald's needs to remember its core business - "We have to remember who we are … a hamburger company."
(3) In his "Tips for managing a turnaround," Skinner puts a focus on people at the top of the list.
And still he has missed the 800 pound Gorilla - corporate culture. There are two aspects to Skinner's turnaround that will require significant culture change in the organization.
First, he is intent on shifting the focus from bigger to better. When an organization has focused on bigger for many decades, getting attention for better takes more than just a plan and new metrics. Skinner will have to embed the focus on better in every aspect of culture. Of course metrics, plans, and policies are a part of that. But culture shapes behavior more than policy and structure shape behavior. Just saying it is so doesn't make it so. When culture and policy are in conflict, culture wins every time. If Skinner doesn't work as diligently on the informal drivers of culture as he does on policies and metrics, the Gorilla just may sink his plan.
Second, Skinner is shifting the focus from burger to choice. The McDonald's menu and marketing messages have been driving this shift for several years. And yet I have to ask whether the managers and executives all over the organization really live and breathe choice or whether they still think in terms of "4 billion burgers served?" It's one thing to change the marketing message and yet another thing to get everyone inside the organization to wake up thinking about choices for consumers.
So, Mr. Skinner, you've clearly taken on the Gorilla at McDonald's. And as you've pointed out, this is a very large organization so its Gorilla will be very large too. Don't forget to tame the Gorilla while you're working the plan.
By Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, growth, McDonald's, strategy
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Trust, risk, and leadership
Wouldn't it be great if everyone in your organization trusted each other? You'd quickly get to the source of problems without wasting time on turf protection or CYA. Many mistakes could be avoided because people would easily ask for help and acknowledge the limits of their expertise.
But that's not the world most people work in. We are often wary, wanting others to trust us but unwilling to trust them first. So the 800 Pound Gorilla (your corporate culture) knows that trusting is too risky and it carries on with CYA and other low trust, counter-productive strategies.
That's why your leadership is important. Trust is a risk game and the leader must ante up first.
Recently an executive was discussing with me his challenges with one of his subordinates. The executive had met one-on-one with his subordinate and was hoping the conversation would help improve the relationship. "I could tell he didn't trust me enough to offer up much about his frustrations and challenges. So I decided to open up with him about my own challenges. It felt risky to put myself out there. But then he did begin to open up. I think we're on a path toward a better working relationship." The executive made a choice to take the risk of talking to his subordinate about the challenges that he felt vulnerable about. The result? Progress in a difficult relationship. Increased trust.
If you want a more trusting organization, be the leader. Ante up first.
By Linda Ford, PhD
New Gorilla E-book Available!
The second Gorilla e-book - "The Gorilla Hates Change: How to Align Culture with Strategy" - is now available.
read more...
But that's not the world most people work in. We are often wary, wanting others to trust us but unwilling to trust them first. So the 800 Pound Gorilla (your corporate culture) knows that trusting is too risky and it carries on with CYA and other low trust, counter-productive strategies.
That's why your leadership is important. Trust is a risk game and the leader must ante up first.
Recently an executive was discussing with me his challenges with one of his subordinates. The executive had met one-on-one with his subordinate and was hoping the conversation would help improve the relationship. "I could tell he didn't trust me enough to offer up much about his frustrations and challenges. So I decided to open up with him about my own challenges. It felt risky to put myself out there. But then he did begin to open up. I think we're on a path toward a better working relationship." The executive made a choice to take the risk of talking to his subordinate about the challenges that he felt vulnerable about. The result? Progress in a difficult relationship. Increased trust.
If you want a more trusting organization, be the leader. Ante up first.
By Linda Ford, PhD
New Gorilla E-book Available!
The second Gorilla e-book - "The Gorilla Hates Change: How to Align Culture with Strategy" - is now available.
Labels: corporate culture, leadership, trust
read more...
Lead the way with mistakes
Are you as comfortable with questions as you are with answers? Do you relish opportunities to learn by making a mistaking or disproving your own assumptions? If you answered 'yes' to both of those questions, you’re fairly unusual among business people in Western cultures. And if you said 'no,' that may work to your detriment.
The June issue of Harvard Business Review tackles the topic of learning from mistakes in a new way. “The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes” (by Schoemaker and Gunther) lays out an approach to identifying and testing key business assumptions that is very counterintuitive for most people. And that means that most corporate cultures contain messages against this behavior.
In most organizations, the culture (our friendly 800 pound Gorilla) tells us that
(1) it’s safer to have answers than questions and
(2) it’s better to have predictable results than to test your business assumptions by violating them.
Schoemaker and Gunther propose a strategy for breakthrough thinking that will shake your Gorilla up if it has these messages. Take a look at their article and see if your Gorilla might learn a bit from this approach. Let me know what you think.
By Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
The June issue of Harvard Business Review tackles the topic of learning from mistakes in a new way. “The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes” (by Schoemaker and Gunther) lays out an approach to identifying and testing key business assumptions that is very counterintuitive for most people. And that means that most corporate cultures contain messages against this behavior.
In most organizations, the culture (our friendly 800 pound Gorilla) tells us that
(1) it’s safer to have answers than questions and
(2) it’s better to have predictable results than to test your business assumptions by violating them.
Schoemaker and Gunther propose a strategy for breakthrough thinking that will shake your Gorilla up if it has these messages. Take a look at their article and see if your Gorilla might learn a bit from this approach. Let me know what you think.
By Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: corporate culture, leadership, learning
read more...
Leading Change - Gorillas Hate Change!
Corporate culture is like an 800 pound Gorilla – with some interesting characteristics. This gorilla is bigger than any of us, it hates change and it’s invisible. If you’re launching an initiative, get the Gorilla on your side.
Tips for making the Gorilla your ally:
1. Congruence – The Gorilla is watching to see if what you say and do is congruent. The old "walk the talk" thing still matters.
2. Communication – The Gorilla makes its own explanations of your actions unless you interpret them explicitly. And the may not be the explanations you’d like or expect!
3. Consistency – The Gorilla doesn’t like change but consistent signals will shift it. Use your behavior, the grapevine and both formal and informal systems to keep sending the same message over and over.
Don’t tangle with your Gorilla, tame it!
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Tips for making the Gorilla your ally:
1. Congruence – The Gorilla is watching to see if what you say and do is congruent. The old "walk the talk" thing still matters.
2. Communication – The Gorilla makes its own explanations of your actions unless you interpret them explicitly. And the may not be the explanations you’d like or expect!
3. Consistency – The Gorilla doesn’t like change but consistent signals will shift it. Use your behavior, the grapevine and both formal and informal systems to keep sending the same message over and over.
Don’t tangle with your Gorilla, tame it!
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Sam Decker (Bazaarvoice) on customer centricity and culture
I recently had a conversation with Sam Decker, Vice President of Marketing & Products for Bazaarvoice, about culture, customers and marketing. Sam is a thoughtful businessman who's been involved with both startups and large companies. He has a good eye for the business side of things as well as the human side. See what he has to say.
You have some experience with pushing at culture from a marketing perspective. For example, when you have tried to get an organization to become more customer-centric, what culture barriers have you bumped into?
Each person, each group, each function you interact with has their own perspective and paradigm which likely represents a gap to the customer perspective. These perspectives are usually driven by internal metrics which are lagging indicators of the group's definition of success. Ultimately this perspective and the measures lead to their functional success in a silo as defined by themselves. But if you add up the functional performance of all silos they don’t necessarily translate into the most customer friendly company.
The barrier to overcome is to bridge how individuals or functions measure your performance to how customers measure your performance. Ideally you identify their WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and bridge the performance measurement of internal processes to performance measurement that is success in the eyes of customers. The win/win is when you can marry the two into a new process and measurement. Then, customer centricity is part of employees’ day to day concerns.
I’m excited about what Bazaarvoice is doing. Seems to me the potential goes way beyond customer reviews for products. Tell me what you envision in the bigger picture of customer-centric organizations and how that will change the culture of your client companies. (No, Sam didn't 'plant' this question. It's just where I wanted to take the conversation when I understood what Bazaarvoice is doing.)
Ok, you’re the first to uncover the exciting truth of Bazaarvoice. Product Ratings and Reviews are just the beginning, fortunately that pays for itself as a marketing strategy. But here is the macro-view of putting customer conversations on your own site. It is a Trojan horse strategy for bringing operational customer oxygen into the company.
I describe it this way because the customer voice will be alive on the site that you, your employees, your executives, your peers, suppliers and partners will view every day. This has far more impact than a one time customer research study, because it is operational. It can become part of multiple functions’ day to day reality. They can gather qualitative and quantitative insights from authentic customer conversations – not from customer to company (sometimes tainted), but their truthful opinion of your products as published on your site.
Product Ratings and Reviews (and similar strategies) are what I call an operational customer centric strategy – balancing a healthy day to day diet between the under-consumed customer perspective to the over consumed internal measures of a company processes.
As VP of marketing, how do act as a change agent, both inside Bazaarvoice and in the marketplace?
Within our company and with our clients I try to broaden perspectives and widen the impact our solution can make in a client company, as well as push the impact each of us can make within our company. We also need to eat our own dog food, bringing a steady diet of our clients' and markets' perspectives into our product roadmap and be as transparent as is prudent to our market. We host client webinars, a blog (perhaps the first blog for an Austin Ventures company!), and are in constant communication with our clients through product management and client services. I also participate in discussions at a CMO-level with our clients on multiple ways to leverage customer conversations in a strategic way, understanding their issues in driving customer-centric culture change and how our solution can help them. I can help them bridge between what our solution can do and the language of the executives and business systems.
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You have some experience with pushing at culture from a marketing perspective. For example, when you have tried to get an organization to become more customer-centric, what culture barriers have you bumped into?
Each person, each group, each function you interact with has their own perspective and paradigm which likely represents a gap to the customer perspective. These perspectives are usually driven by internal metrics which are lagging indicators of the group's definition of success. Ultimately this perspective and the measures lead to their functional success in a silo as defined by themselves. But if you add up the functional performance of all silos they don’t necessarily translate into the most customer friendly company.
The barrier to overcome is to bridge how individuals or functions measure your performance to how customers measure your performance. Ideally you identify their WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and bridge the performance measurement of internal processes to performance measurement that is success in the eyes of customers. The win/win is when you can marry the two into a new process and measurement. Then, customer centricity is part of employees’ day to day concerns.
I’m excited about what Bazaarvoice is doing. Seems to me the potential goes way beyond customer reviews for products. Tell me what you envision in the bigger picture of customer-centric organizations and how that will change the culture of your client companies. (No, Sam didn't 'plant' this question. It's just where I wanted to take the conversation when I understood what Bazaarvoice is doing.)
Ok, you’re the first to uncover the exciting truth of Bazaarvoice. Product Ratings and Reviews are just the beginning, fortunately that pays for itself as a marketing strategy. But here is the macro-view of putting customer conversations on your own site. It is a Trojan horse strategy for bringing operational customer oxygen into the company.
I describe it this way because the customer voice will be alive on the site that you, your employees, your executives, your peers, suppliers and partners will view every day. This has far more impact than a one time customer research study, because it is operational. It can become part of multiple functions’ day to day reality. They can gather qualitative and quantitative insights from authentic customer conversations – not from customer to company (sometimes tainted), but their truthful opinion of your products as published on your site.
Product Ratings and Reviews (and similar strategies) are what I call an operational customer centric strategy – balancing a healthy day to day diet between the under-consumed customer perspective to the over consumed internal measures of a company processes.
As VP of marketing, how do act as a change agent, both inside Bazaarvoice and in the marketplace?
Within our company and with our clients I try to broaden perspectives and widen the impact our solution can make in a client company, as well as push the impact each of us can make within our company. We also need to eat our own dog food, bringing a steady diet of our clients' and markets' perspectives into our product roadmap and be as transparent as is prudent to our market. We host client webinars, a blog (perhaps the first blog for an Austin Ventures company!), and are in constant communication with our clients through product management and client services. I also participate in discussions at a CMO-level with our clients on multiple ways to leverage customer conversations in a strategic way, understanding their issues in driving customer-centric culture change and how our solution can help them. I can help them bridge between what our solution can do and the language of the executives and business systems.
Labels: change, corporate culture, interviews, stakeholders
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Corn, cars and concepts
Sick of the whole “new economy” thing? It was a bit overdone in the 90’s… But there is some relevance to the “new economy” as we navigate continuing economic shifts. I’m not an economist, so this isn’t going to be a diatribe about macro economic theory or some such thing. For me, as a businessperson, it boils down to “corn, cars and concepts.”
First, we had the agrarian economy – all about corn. People related to their families or village. Their lives were pretty much regulated by Mother Nature. Get up with the sun, milk the cows, work the soil, go to bed with the sun. Life and work weren’t “balanced” – they were integrated—parts of a whole that were shared through stories and handed-down wisdom. You didn’t need a “take your daughter to work” day – she worked with you every day.
Then, along came cars. OK, lots of other things came along about that same time – and the industrial economy overtook the agrarian economy. Relationships broadened to include folks at the factory, and sometimes throughout a whole city. You had contact and connections with way more people across a much larger geography. Mother Nature as regulator was displaced by machinery—Get up with the alarm clock so you can be at the factory before the whistle. Work and life became separate; labor unions were born to protect our lifestyles from our work. Child labor laws kept you from taking your daughter to work.
Today it comes down to concepts. Some call it the “information economy” or the “imagination economy.” I suspect history will have to decide what this era really is. But what is clear for now is that just as corn was displaced by cars, concepts now rule. Not computers or information, but concepts. That’s where all the new juice is. We can have relationships with anyone in the world and at the same time many of us are somewhat isolated – telecommuting or free agents, living alone. Mother Nature and machines have been replaced by the mass media as the main regulator of day-to-day reality. Our work and lives are once again more connected as more of us work at home and telecommute. Now, we need a “take your daughter to work” day because they’re gone, while we labor at home on work that is more abstract, more conceptual. Our kids aren’t in touch with it. They ask “what do you do, Mom?” And we have a hard time explaining.
Concepts are hard to explain, but they are the fuel for the current economy. Want a place in the current economy? Be adept at working with concepts – inventing, adapting, managing, cataloging, implementing concepts –. The more sophisticated or novel the concept, the more unique your role will be. As Daniel Pink points out in A Whole New Mind, with concepts we use mostly our right brain , but in the early stage of the information age we used our left brain skills. So, there is a shift we need to make.
The shift to concepts as the “main ingredient” of the economy also necessitates a shift in organizational culture. “Data driven” can be a good thing, but it’s not the only thing. In an economy where concepts rule, we need to return to our “corn” roots and rediscover and communicate the stories, intuition, feelings and wisdom that now hold the “concept” economy together. This shift isn’t just about individual skills, it’s how our organizations work.
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First, we had the agrarian economy – all about corn. People related to their families or village. Their lives were pretty much regulated by Mother Nature. Get up with the sun, milk the cows, work the soil, go to bed with the sun. Life and work weren’t “balanced” – they were integrated—parts of a whole that were shared through stories and handed-down wisdom. You didn’t need a “take your daughter to work” day – she worked with you every day.
Then, along came cars. OK, lots of other things came along about that same time – and the industrial economy overtook the agrarian economy. Relationships broadened to include folks at the factory, and sometimes throughout a whole city. You had contact and connections with way more people across a much larger geography. Mother Nature as regulator was displaced by machinery—Get up with the alarm clock so you can be at the factory before the whistle. Work and life became separate; labor unions were born to protect our lifestyles from our work. Child labor laws kept you from taking your daughter to work.
Today it comes down to concepts. Some call it the “information economy” or the “imagination economy.” I suspect history will have to decide what this era really is. But what is clear for now is that just as corn was displaced by cars, concepts now rule. Not computers or information, but concepts. That’s where all the new juice is. We can have relationships with anyone in the world and at the same time many of us are somewhat isolated – telecommuting or free agents, living alone. Mother Nature and machines have been replaced by the mass media as the main regulator of day-to-day reality. Our work and lives are once again more connected as more of us work at home and telecommute. Now, we need a “take your daughter to work” day because they’re gone, while we labor at home on work that is more abstract, more conceptual. Our kids aren’t in touch with it. They ask “what do you do, Mom?” And we have a hard time explaining.
Concepts are hard to explain, but they are the fuel for the current economy. Want a place in the current economy? Be adept at working with concepts – inventing, adapting, managing, cataloging, implementing concepts –. The more sophisticated or novel the concept, the more unique your role will be. As Daniel Pink points out in A Whole New Mind, with concepts we use mostly our right brain , but in the early stage of the information age we used our left brain skills. So, there is a shift we need to make.
The shift to concepts as the “main ingredient” of the economy also necessitates a shift in organizational culture. “Data driven” can be a good thing, but it’s not the only thing. In an economy where concepts rule, we need to return to our “corn” roots and rediscover and communicate the stories, intuition, feelings and wisdom that now hold the “concept” economy together. This shift isn’t just about individual skills, it’s how our organizations work.
Labels: change, corporate culture, innovation
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Decker Marketing blog interview
Sam Decker posted a brief blog interview with me about culture and leadership this week. The introduction is below. For the full posting, click here.
Three Questions: Change Leadership & Culture with Linda Ford
The best consultants have been in the trenches and have talent to articulate their experience to practical application for others.
Such a consultant is Linda Ford, who shares a passion for culture and change leadership and has over 15 years of day-to-day management and training experience in Silicon Valley. The other day we had lunch and I asked her to answer three questions which you may find interesting.
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Three Questions: Change Leadership & Culture with Linda Ford
The best consultants have been in the trenches and have talent to articulate their experience to practical application for others.
Such a consultant is Linda Ford, who shares a passion for culture and change leadership and has over 15 years of day-to-day management and training experience in Silicon Valley. The other day we had lunch and I asked her to answer three questions which you may find interesting.
Labels: corporate culture, interviews, leadership
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Innovation and the experimental mindset
When you’re watching a toddler learn to walk and she falls, you don’t wonder if she should quit trying to walk. Instead you know she is on a learning curve. Innovation requires experimentation. And experimentation requires a mindset focused more on learning than on getting it right.
Key elements of that mindset?
-- When something doesn’t come out the way you planned, it’s not a failure; it’s an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work. Just like that toddler learning to walk.
-- Focus on relationships as a context for learning. If others are involved in the experiment in some way, make a connection with them. When we feel connected to someone, we are less likely to punish a “mistake” and more likely to support the learning.
-- Think about a margin for error. If you’re changing a process, be sure you can revert back to the old process if necessary. That way you can feel free to try things that might not work. Although some advocate that you burn the ships when you land so there is no turning back, in many cases you can take more risks if you leave yourself a way back.
This experimental mindset can help you and your organization be more innovative every day and it makes work more fun!
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Key elements of that mindset?
-- When something doesn’t come out the way you planned, it’s not a failure; it’s an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work. Just like that toddler learning to walk.
-- Focus on relationships as a context for learning. If others are involved in the experiment in some way, make a connection with them. When we feel connected to someone, we are less likely to punish a “mistake” and more likely to support the learning.
-- Think about a margin for error. If you’re changing a process, be sure you can revert back to the old process if necessary. That way you can feel free to try things that might not work. Although some advocate that you burn the ships when you land so there is no turning back, in many cases you can take more risks if you leave yourself a way back.
This experimental mindset can help you and your organization be more innovative every day and it makes work more fun!
Labels: corporate culture, innovation, learning
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Do you have Mother’s permission?
By now you know about permission marketing. Wikipedia says that permission marketers “ask permission before they send advertisements to prospective customers.”
But there’s another kind of permission that’s important to your success – Mother’s. The permission of “Mother Culture” is just as important as that of your customers. Your organization’s culture sets the rules for how to get things done.
If what you are trying to do flies in the face of Mother Culture, she’s likely to slap you down. Mother Culture gets a say about whether “the customer is king” or “quality is job #1” in reality or just in the mind of some corporate type. She also gets a say about who gets promoted. Sometimes, she even gets to fire the new boss. Look what happened to Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard.
With this in mind, plan your next big (or small) thing by first thinking about whether you have Mother Culture’s permission. If not, take the time to create a strategy for either winning her over or working around her. Like any mother, Mother Culture doesn’t appreciate being ignored.
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But there’s another kind of permission that’s important to your success – Mother’s. The permission of “Mother Culture” is just as important as that of your customers. Your organization’s culture sets the rules for how to get things done.
If what you are trying to do flies in the face of Mother Culture, she’s likely to slap you down. Mother Culture gets a say about whether “the customer is king” or “quality is job #1” in reality or just in the mind of some corporate type. She also gets a say about who gets promoted. Sometimes, she even gets to fire the new boss. Look what happened to Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard.
With this in mind, plan your next big (or small) thing by first thinking about whether you have Mother Culture’s permission. If not, take the time to create a strategy for either winning her over or working around her. Like any mother, Mother Culture doesn’t appreciate being ignored.
Labels: corporate culture
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How do you know who matters most?
Check out "The Office Chart That Really Counts" in BusinessWeek online (article dated Feb. 27, 2006). The notion is that the informal web of relationships at work has more to do with what gets done than the official org chart. Now that's not exactly "new news." The most noteworthy bit in this article is the thoughts about who is threatened by having a map of the informal system, why they feel threatened and how they are managing it.
As the article notes, social network analysis has been around for years in the social science world. However, it's now being used in business settings to better understand what's actually happening in organizations. Imagine what you might do if you had such a map. Would you promote individuals who are better connected? Who would you send to the next really interesting technical conference? Would you find the existence of such a map threatening?
This map of informal networks would also tell you a lot about the culture of the organization. Silos would be immediately visible on the map. The concentration of information in the hands of a few would jump out at you. By noting whether the map changed significantly over time, you could see whether the information structures are fluid or fixed.
Although you don't likely have a scientific chart, you could probably draw your own view of the network in your organization. What would you see in that chart???
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As the article notes, social network analysis has been around for years in the social science world. However, it's now being used in business settings to better understand what's actually happening in organizations. Imagine what you might do if you had such a map. Would you promote individuals who are better connected? Who would you send to the next really interesting technical conference? Would you find the existence of such a map threatening?
This map of informal networks would also tell you a lot about the culture of the organization. Silos would be immediately visible on the map. The concentration of information in the hands of a few would jump out at you. By noting whether the map changed significantly over time, you could see whether the information structures are fluid or fixed.
Although you don't likely have a scientific chart, you could probably draw your own view of the network in your organization. What would you see in that chart???
Labels: corporate culture, silos
read more...