The Holy Grail - finally an effective way to measure culture change with an added bonus!

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As we all know, company culture is currently a hot topic and there’s widespread agreement from CEOs and Boards (92%) that investing in culture has improved their organisation’s financial performance*.

Over the years, I’ve worked with a lot of companies on their culture transformation programmes and the one thing that they all had in common was the frustration felt at not being able to accurately measure success along the way.  In a lot of cases complex measurements were put in place, albeit with the best intent, but which fell far short in accuracy and caused a lot of discontent and conflict internally.

There were several reasons why I was attracted to becoming a Barrett Culture Transformation Tools Practitioner recently.  Not only do I value Richard Barrett’s core model, the Seven Levels of Consciousness Model, is cleverly mapped to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and was developed to give a better understanding into people’s motivations, but the quick-to-complete Culture Values Assessment delivers an insightful report that subsequently acts as a benchmark to measure against – in my opinion the Holy Grail!

What’s also powerful is the fact that this Cultural Values Assessment is completed by colleagues across the organisation. Not only do colleagues therefore feel involved and respected, but they are the ones that know the company inside out, where it currently stands from a culture perspective - warts and all - and what they feel it would take for it to become a high performing entity.   For those at the top of the tree who don’t necessarily have a finger on the pulse of internal organisational sentiment, this gives invaluable understanding and something concrete to act and focus on.

Organisations don’t transform, people do. The annual culture assessment allows companies to determine the personal needs of their colleagues and monitor the extent to which they feel aligned with the culture (values) and the extent in which they feel on track (vision alignment).  Together with the level of Cultural Entropy (dysfunction and limiting core values) and Health, these indicators enable the company to assess the level of colleague engagement and the relevant levers that need to be pulled in direct response to the employee feedback.

At a time when company culture is so crucial to bottom line success, the Culture Capitaliser Phase 1 and 2 approach I’ve created can hugely move the dial.  The high level outline of the programme you’ll see on my website and can be tailored, but the model and assessment report bring a much more robust framework to follow.  Do get in touch if you want to find out more or take a look at my website here.

*Culture and Boards at a glance (Ernst & Young 2016)

Two exceptional women stood out last month for me and one was a bit of a surprise….

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Two exceptional women stood out for me last month….

Having recently watched A Star in Born, her Oscars’ acceptance speech and a short video at Yale, I’ve totally changed my mind about Lady Gaga.  A few months ago I would have called you ‘gaga’ if you’d said I’d become a fan of Lady Gaga but this Lady is worth listening to as she’s one smart cookie.

There are a couple of things that she says that really resonate.   ‘If you have a dream, fight for it”, she continued “There’s a discipline for passion.”  I’ve never heard that latter expression before and it’s so wise.  In her powerful acceptance speech, she shares and reminds us that success comes down to smart work and refusing to give up on what’s most important to you.

If you have time to watch the short clip of her at Yale, she also talks about nearly giving up music a few years ago as she felt “overworked and that her passion and creativity was taking a backseat because of it.” Time and time again in the past, I’ve fallen into the trap of overworking, becoming burnt out and resentful and when I talk to clients and friends, particularly, women, there seems to be a pattern here.

 Lady Gaga goes onto to say “Regaining self-awareness is an act of uncovering your own personal narrative. What you stand for, where you’re going and why anyone else should follow.”  She added “Part of my identity is saying no now.”  It’s not that she’s being difficult here, but she realised that she was getting passed from pillar to post, doing too much and doing things that didn’t sit well with her and it was sucking away her passion and creativity. She advises the students “Know who you are and then choose what you want to do.”  She’s right we all have a choice.

It doesn’t matter what you do and where you work, but staying true to your core values, embracing what you’re passionate about, knowing you have a choice and not being overworked, will ensure that you continue to shine at your brightest.

The other phenomenal lady that stood out to me in March from a leadership and communication perspective - and I’m sure you won’t be surprised at this - is Jacinda Ardern, the PM of New Zealand. 

She not only voiced a nation’s grief, she led with empathy, she united people and avoided language of division, she galvanised the community and she communicated quickly, consistently, acting with good intent and with pace, with gun reforms announced two days after the terrorist attack.  For me she is a fantastic force for good and at a time when there’s a lack of trust and truth in what we hear, she has it in spades.  She’s not only competent and prepared but she’s has huge integrity and purpose and that’s why when Arden talks, people listen.

So two different leadership styles, both fantastic communicators, with strong beliefs and who have a great following. What are your core values and what kind of leader and communication style do you have or want to aspire to?

Profit with purpose is set to become the norm

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Profit with purpose is set to become the norm  

It’s interesting that in recent years CEOs have gone from being symbols of aspiration to objects of intense scrutiny.  The same can be said for organisations that can no longer hide with social media empowering customers and colleagues and weakening the position of businesses. It’s been quite a shift that CEOs and their companies have had to consider and react to.

Trust has become the ultimate currency and as Patrick Lencioni states in his great book ‘Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team’; “No quality or characteristic is more important than trust.”

Millennials are driving this trend and 40% of those polled by the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2018 believe the goal of businesses should be to ‘improve society’.  Companies should be listening to this group as research shows that by 2020, millennials will make up 40% of all consumers, influencing about $40 billion in annual sales.

Profit with purpose is set to become the norm. A shift from a short-term business perspective to a longer-term perspective is evolving.  Leaders are understanding that the bigger picture counts. It’s pretty simple - if the environment fails, our society will fail and our businesses and economies will fail. Fact!  A bigger picture purpose also motivates colleagues within an organisation, I remember my time fondly at Bupa and all the colleagues I worked with there were very focused on playing their part to deliver the company’s purpose ‘Longer, healthier and happier lives’.

Interestingly, a new shorter and sharper 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code was launched last July designed to set higher standards of corporate governance in the UK to promote transparency and integrity in business and, at the same time, attract investment in the UK in the long-term, benefiting the economy and wider society.

Section 1 of the revised Code named Leadership and Purpose, emphasises the need for boards to determine and promote the culture of their company and to engage with shareholders and their wider stakeholders.

In the Culture and Boards at a glance report by Ernst & Young 2016, 92% have said that investing in culture has improved their financial performance. Culture starts with setting the right purpose, vision and values for an organisation.

The organisation must be looked at as a whole, not in parts.  If you’re to carry out a successful transformation (culture) change, there are a number of steps to embrace:

  • Commitment to the change from on high

  • Baseline measurement

  • Executive team alignment

  • Setting the purpose (WHY) and vision (WHAT) and aligning to the other ‘what’, the strategy

  • Setting the values and behaviours which will achieve your purpose (HOW)

  • Personal, structural, values, purpose, vision, strategy and change alignment

  • Communication and engagement

  • Embedding programme

  • Measurement

  • Reset

Leaders remain the drivers of culture change and are critical to its success.  Engagement and communications are essential to bring the purpose, vision, values and roadmap alive to colleagues and keeping them motivated by progress. The enablers and levers are the people processes, structures, incentives and procedures that must all reflect the espoused values, vision and purpose.

Leaders are the most critical in my mind and Richard Barrett states and I’m wholly with him on this “The culture of an organisation is a reflection of leadership consciousness. If you want the culture of your company to evolve, you must either change the leaders or the leaders must change.”

To be effective, any change management or cultural transformation process must focus on the whole system, not just part of it. The three main factors that need to be focused on if you want to build a values-driven organisation are the personal values of the people leaders, the structural alignment of the company and the well-being of colleagues (values and vision alignment).

Look out for my next blog that looks at the importance of measuring culture change and how using colleagues across the organisation to do this can be the most powerful approach.

Connect and Capitalise monthly magic

Career and Entrepreneur Capitaliser
  • Meet Jane Anderson, someone I met over 9 years ago and who has become a phenomenal entrepreneur success. You’ll find her in My blog called Connecting to Capitalise – find your 15!  It’s based on a blog she sent me (do read hers too – the link is in my blog).  Both of them will give you real food for thought and a powerful action to take away with you. 

 

  • A brilliant article I read from Stephanie St Claire is called the 11 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business. Love the way she writes and the content is very good – I’m sure you entrepreneurs out there will feel some if not all of it resonates!  What can you take from it to help you on your journey?

 

 

Communications, Culture and
Performance Capitaliser

 

  • I read an interesting article relating to communication called Your Brain On Stories - Stories are powerful because they more fully engage the brain.  Storytelling continues to be a brilliant way to engage, why wouldn’t they as most of us have been brought up listening to bedtime stories.  How can you story tell to hook the people you want to?

 

Don't forget if you're a leader, job seeker, entrepreneur or company looking for support, to perform at your best and stand out from the crowd, do take a look at the ‘working with you’ section on this website to see how I can help.

CONNECTING TO CAPITALISE – FIND YOUR 15!

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I met Jane Anderson about eight years ago when I was in Dubai and was coaching and creating performance-enhancing programmes for the likes of M&S and Ikea. She was zipping across the world meeting up with people to pick their brains, grow her network and start to build her vision for her future.

Since then Jane has done phenomenally well.  She’s helped thousands of people, received numerous awards; she’s written six books and done so much more, but don’t take my word for it though, take a look at her website.

For me Jane typifies how having a clear vision backed up by sheer willpower and focus can be the winning formula.

I reached out to her recently and asked her what she would focus on if she was setting out and in the early stages of her entrepreneurial journey.  She sent me a blog that I think is so powerful and something to really consider if you’re serious about setting up your business and taking it to another level as quickly as you can.  Here’s a synopsis with my lense on it.

Find your 15!

I believe that one of the toughest things for entrepreneurs is to keep the faith and keep going. Most entrepreneurs set up their businesses as they feel there is a certain something that consistently pulls them in a certain direction and tugs at their heart strings. However, the entrepreneur journey is never straight forward and is like being at the fairground on a roller coaster ride it’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time and a lot of the time the terrifying can be all-consuming! It’s very easy to give up when the going gets tough, particularly at the start of the journey, and the stats show that many entrepreneurs do.

Research shows that 50% of executives feel uncertain about their confidence in their abilities to address obstacles for business growth and cites that one of the biggest contributors is not having the right people around them.

It’s so important to be able to be your authentic self and unlock your full potential.  When you have the right people around you, willing you on, encouraging you every step of the way and blowing your trumpet, it helps to infuse your confidence and keep you focused and driven.

In Jane’s blog, she references Social anthropologist Robin Dunbar who has identified the metrics of leaders and tribes that have survived through time. From Indigenous tribes in Australia to tribes in the Amazon, he identified a metric to ensure that a tribe survives – and not only survives but thrives through the test of time.

Having created the first draft, I started to ponder and reflect about both blogs and although both primarily focused on the world of the entrepreneur, I believe using this same approach in the corporate world or in agency land, will also be effective. It doesn’t matter what world you’re inhabiting at present, pick the right 15 people for you to help champion and encourage you as you step through your working day and navigate complexities and challenges. It’s a simple tactic, but could bring real value to you.

That number is 15.

Who are the 15 people around you who are committed to your success? They’re the ones who have your best interest at heart and can help you make decisions when you might not be able to. They’re the ones you can depend on when you’re unsure or struggling and will help build your confidence and resolve along the way.

In 2019, who are your special 15 people going to be? When you are choosing them, think how they could support you and make you feel in the good times and the tough times?  And how are you going to connect and work with them so you stay on track and capitalise on every opportunity?

Do read Jane’s full blog Who’s in your Corner for 2019? It Takes a Tribe to Build Confidence as it’s fantastic and worth it.

I hope both blogs give you food for thought….

Joss

Strong company character and culture: the foundation of accelerating organisational performance

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Companies have a huge capacity to capture our imagination when they are purposeful and bring value to customers, meaningful innovation and respect to employees.  Fuse these with a strong company character and culture and you have a phenomenal opportunity on which to  accelerate performance and build business success.

Two iconic leaders in this space passed away last year - Blake Nordstrom of Nordstrom.com a global fashion retailer and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines. They should not be forgotten.  They understood the power of their people and a strong corporate culture.  In 2018, Norstrom topped Market Force’s Customer Loyalty Index amongst fashion retailers for the sixth consecutive year.  Southwest Airlines topped the JD Power’s Customer Satisfaction rankings for low-cost carriers.

These two companies both have a remarkable reputation for customer service which starts with their culture. Both cultures are based on trust, safety and respect.

Herb Kelleher himself perfectly illuminated this principle: 

“If the employees come first, then they’re happy…. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It’s not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.”

Nordstrom focused on cultivating a sense of co-ownership and a culture of mutual respect. Blake Nordstrom himself described their approach:

“We want all employees to feel like it’s their name on the door and they are empowered to do whatever it takes to serve the customer on their terms. Our open door policy is connected to the idea that we have a stake in this together.  It’s up to each of us to play our role in delivering the best experience for the customer.”

I particularly like Blake Nordstrom’s co-ownership approach, it reminds me of the incredible turnaround of the England Rugby Union team under Clive Woodward, who put the following six crucial steps in place:

1.       Set the vision to inspire the team

2.       Design the experience that supports your goal

3.       Build the infrastructure of effective systems

4.       Shape the mindset by thinking different and in detail

5.       Implement new ideas and initiatives carefully and drop them if they don’t support your aims

6.       Coach and analyse to achieve world-class standards of measurable performance

 and underpinned them all with the cultivation of an elite team culture.

When I think of what Clive Woodward accomplished and how he went about it, he absolutely mirrored Blake Nordstrom’s co-ownership approach - he set out a clear vision and gave every player the chance to be part of moulding the desired culture and gave them every chance to thrive, succeed and achieve.

He involved the players and asked them for their ideas about playing for the elite England team and detailed these ever-evolving details in a book which became known as the Black Book. Over eight months, it changed and morphed and the end result was a blueprint for the elite professional sports experience that would support the overarching goal of winning the Rugby World Cup.

The book became the cornerstone of the elite culture, the guiding beacon.  It was etched in the minds of the players and for any new player into the team, it was invaluable. The players started to believe in the art of the possible and that they were an elite team, destined to World Cup status. 

Indeed the approach was focused beyond focused and in fact Woodward said after winning the World Cup that “If I started again in business or sport, the Black Book concept is the first thing I’d create with a new team”.

Setting solid foundations and embedding a desired culture is fundamentally important to the success of a business.  Discretionary work, commitment and loyalty can’t be bought.  Herb Kelleher put it well: “The core of our success. That’s the most difficult thing for a competitor to imitate. They can buy all the physical things. The things you can’t buy are dedication, devotion, loyalty—the feeling that you are participating in a crusade.”

Have you identified the right culture in your business that will lead you to success? Have you put in place an embedding programme so that the desired culture becomes etched in your company’s fabric and will stand the test of time?

  

We rise by lifting others

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I love this quote and it really gives you food for thought. True leaders have this front and centre of their minds. They understand the strengths of their team members and use these strengths to help them thrive.

When a person is doing what they love and playing to their strengths, the work they produce is not only better but they’re happier and more productive.

Do you know the strengths of every member in your team and what they like to do?

CULTURE CHANGE…IT’S IMPORTANT, BUT MORE OF A MARATHON THAN A SPRINT!

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Changing a culture in an organisation is a pretty hard thing to do and because of this, many companies put it at the bottom of their ‘to do’ list. However, a business owner or CEO would be advised to bring it to the fore, because when positive cultural forces align with strategic priorities, it can accelerate a company’s drive to gain the competitive edge.

Corporate cultures constantly slowly evolve…FACT!  You can’t change a culture overnight…..FACT! 

Behaviours are the most powerful aspect of real change because what people actually do is much more powerful than what they say or believe.

Once a company is clear about its strategic vision and the direction of travel has been defined, then it must look at the behaviours that will support achieving the vision. What are the cultural attributes that already exist and work well for the company. These should be acknowledged, celebrated and retained.  Then it’s important to analyse the themed behaviours that are seen as hindrance to delivering the vision and focus on shifting these.  Remember, a total culture make-over is unrealistic, could get your colleagues backs up and isn’t the right way forward.

Your leaders are key to driving the right culture and the change required. Role modelling and championing are critical if the journey to a new, desired culture is going to come to fruition.  Make sure your leaders understand their role as change agents; know the behaviours they should be role modelling and championing, are clear on what’s expected from them and can support, empower and enable their teams as the change journey develops and unfurls.

I read an article that resonated with me and covered many of the key principles that should be addressed as a company looks to evolve its culture. It’s definitely worth a read if culture is a hot topic in your organisation and something you’re interested in.

And finally don’t forget, when looking at driving a performance-driven culture for your company, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon – expect an evolution, not a revolution.