Learning Archive - Walking the Talk

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Focus on one behavior at a time

Focus accelerates results in the culture arena just as it does in all business endeavours. In a development program I attended once we had to find the essence of the word ‘responsibility’ and express it without using words in a way that others understood. We found it surprisingly difficult and it took a long time. Because although I had used the word many times, I had never really thought deeply about what it meant.

Superficiality damages culture initiatives. I frequently find organizations developing long lists of the values and behaviors they want to underpin their culture. It’s tempting, after all, when answering the question “what is our ideal culture?” to pen a description that covers the widest range of aspirations. When communicated, the potential for transformation is lost because people are left wondering what specifically they are being asked to do differently.

More powerful, I have found, is to take one concept, and work it hard. ‘Keep your word’, for example. The more I consider this concept, the more I realize what an all emcompassing idea it is. Enough, on its own, to transform an organization. What does it take to walk that talk? Here’s just a few of the skills and behaviors that are needed. I am sure you can come up with many more. Imagine an organization that had mastered these.

Not giving or accepting excuses
Taking responsibility for not having anticipated outside events which disrupted plans
Saying ‘no’ when being asked to do something you believe is impossible
Setting goals with (not for) others which are stretching, but not ridiculous
Negotiating with others to deliver what you need from them in order to keep your own word
Raising unpopular concerns when everyone else is being swept along by optimism
Being willing to voice the difference between an intention (“I’ll do my best”) and a promise (“You have my word”)

It would be pretty amazing if a group of people were able to live up to ‘keep your word’ as a shared value and standard. Would probably put them ahead of all of their competititors. And not a list of aspirations in sight.

How to take responsibility for the crisis

I saw an article in the New York Times about the official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission which left me realizing how far we have to go before we have our key organizations run with a sense of responsibility and integrity. Called “Banks without a CLue” the article quotes some very senior bankers making statements in the commission which, if I heard in a training workshop coming from mid-level supervisors I would conclude they had reached the ceiling of their capability.

I have written many times about responsibility which I define as RESPONSE-ABILITY or the ability to see one’s part in a situation, and thus be able to plan an effective response. Read these quote

“A financial crisis is something which happens every 5-7 years. We shouldn’t be surprised”. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase. ie. Stuff happens, and we are all victims to it.

“The financial crisis is like a hurricane no-one could have predicted. We should resist a response that is soley designed to protect us from a 100-year storm” Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs.

The commissions’ chairman, was not amused, declaring that the crisis was not an act of God, but resulted from the acts of men and women. Click here for the full article.

RESPONS-ABILITY offers the opportunity for learning. Unless I see myself as a part of the problem, I cannot be a part of the solution. The questions to be asked, in this instance, are ‘what actions did we as a bank take which contributed to this crisis? What could we have differently which would have led to a different outcome? In the face of the crisis, what can we do to prevent this happening again? People with this approach to their work are the ones who you want to be promoting. Responsibility as one of the universal attributes required to lead, manage and support any great culture. If you feel yourself slipping into the mind-set of these bankers, reach out for your coach, because you will never be able to effect change. (Or join an organization that pays you very large bonuses for not taking responsibility).

It's now…and it's us

The ’00s marked the rise of talent management as a serious enabler of business performance. In the ’60s-’70s it was marketing and brand management, with the corresponding rise in the importance of the marketing professionals. The ’80s-’90s marked the emergence of technology as the key enabler, and the development of the CIO role. Now it is the turn of talent management and the HR manager is turning from the old ‘personal manager’ role into a key strategic partner in the business with a seat at the top table.

There are some symbols of this trend:

Every major consulting firm, including those who would previously have turned up their nose at HR, now have a ‘human capital’ business. McKinsey, PWC, Accenture, etc. etc. It has been their growth engine in recent years.
CEOs and companies who emphasize people and culture are getting more media coverage. Jack Walsh at GE was one of the first, think now of Starbucks, SouthWest Airlines, Google, Zappos, etc. People want to work for and buy from companies that put people and culture first.
Spend on leadership development is increasing rapidly. According to the ASTD, in the US alone, companies spent $109 billion in 2005, increasing to $134 billion in 2007. Of this latter figure, $29.5 billion was spent on external resources.

I see a number of factors that have combined to cause this rise in the importance of talent management

Culture has been identified as the cause of many corporate woes, from merger failures, to unethical practices bringing whole businesses down (Enron, etc), to the recent financial crisis. Leadership behavior is the key driver of corporate culture. Quote Alan Greenspan: ‘The prime factor in predicting whether a company will be honest or not is the character of its CEO. If the CEO countenances managing reported earnings, that attitude will drive the entire accounting regime of the firm. If he or she instead insists on an objective representation of a company’s business dealings, that standard will govern recordkeeping and due diligence”.
Changes in demographics mean that top talent will become a scarcer resource. With the aging of the Baby Boomers there are fewer people available to fill leadership roles. A 2007 Bersin Associates study showed that 53% of organizations face leadership shortages, most of which are at the mid-management and director level.
Gen X & Y have no problem leaving their company if they are not getting what they want. The age of employee loyalty and desire for security is gone.
Rise of service industries means that the brand experience and customer satisfaction levels are much more closely linked to employees.
Technology driven changes in work practices and decision making (e.g., global teams, quality of management information, complexity of decision making, speed of competitive change) place higher demands on leaders. The old ‘command & control’ style is just not going to work, and leaders need a higher order of emotional intelligence, self awareness, communication and relationship building skills. These skills are all learnable.
The rise of women in the workplace has moved the balance more towards the more collaborative and reflective elements of management
Aggressive and well informed recruitment firms approach an organization’s best talent every day, and these people need to feel very engaged with their employer to resist the temptations they receive. Leaders who are receiving coaching increase their level of engagement by learning to more successfully address the challenges which frustrate them.
Outside of work, there has been a massive rise in personal development activity (think of the self help book sector alone) and many leaders come to work already aware that there is a link between how they think, how they behave and the outcomes they produce. These people want development support, including coaching, to help them perform to a higher level.

I am excited! All of us – consultants, HR professsionals, business leaders – have a role to contribute to and gain from this trend, and perhaps a responsibility to build higher standards for the behavior in corporations. I look forward to exploring with you how we can pursue this goal.

Read, react, win. What is a recession-proof culture?

Here is an article by a consultant from Boston Consulting Group, describing a client, Brady Corp (BRC) who took many early decisions and thus avoided much of the pain of the recession. Reading it, I ask myself the question, what was it about the culture in this company that allowed them to make the decisions they did? Why were they able to see what was coming, anticipate the risks, take tough decisions and keep their employees engaged, and other companies were not. A single leader will struggle to implement radical change quickly without the support of a culture aligned to this approach. These are the moments when the impact of culture on performance becomes so clear to me.

I see four characteristics in companies who are able to practice good risk anticipation and make decisions to mitigate these risks.

1. Questioning the status quo, challenging each other, and dedicating special time to do this.
2. Future, rather than past, orientation
3. Willingness to stand up and be counted, take responsibility through taking decisive action
4. Managers think for the whole and can see a global perspective which may not advantage their individual area

And four characteristics in those who are not.

1. A good news culture. Things are communicated with a positive spin
2. Very nice to each other, unwillingness to step on each other’s toes
3. Avoidance, blame and denial, usually motivated by a desire to stay out of trouble.
4. Highly internally competitive with individuals seeking to outperform each other and be stars

The time to build these characteristics into a culture is when people are feeling the pain of this recession. Learning can be more difficult during stable years. In this way it is possible to build recession-proof charcteristics which will also serve to respond to future change in market conditions.

4 stages to reach learning out of defeat

I read in the Spectator this week an article about the process political parties typically go through after a defeat.

“Stage 1 We didn’t really lose. (The other guys just happened to luck into an appealing candidate – but people really prefer us).
Stage 2. OK, we lost – but only because the voters are idiots.
Stage 3. OK, we lost and maybe the voters are not idiots – but there is nothing we can do without betraying our sacred principles.
Stage 4. Hey, maybe there is something we can do”.

In other words
Stage 1. Denial
Stage 2. Blame.
Stage 3. Justification.
Stage 4. Responsibility

Sound familiar? So incredibly simple, yet sometimes so incredibly hard.

Only in stage 4 is learning and change possible. How can you help your team move through to stage 4 as quickly as possible (like in 5 minutes!)?

As an aside, in the Specator’s opinion, the Conservative party in Britain is at Stage 4, the Republicans in the US at Stage 1. What do you think? Quote: “The Republicans are in no mood to absorb any lessons. They are waiting for the public to come to its senses and see through the phony Obama”.

How to refresh your organization's culture efforts

Refresh. Yesterday I had a conversation with an OD manager who used this word to describe his organization’s goal in relation to their efforts on culture next year. “We need to refresh our culture and to re-engage people in our purpose for wanting to improve it”. Given so many companies have dedicated effort already to building values and behavior that suits their goals and strategies, there is likely to come a moment where it seems important to refresh.

As always, in thinking through my response to his comments, I reverted to my basic framework of walking the talk. To refresh their organization, leaders will have to refresh themselves. This ‘refreshing’ process will happen on two levels: Reviewing the belief on the business value being created, and reconnecting with the individual passion to lead a change in culture.

1. Reviewing the business value. When an organization starts to focus attention on culture, the business case for doing so is usually well defined. A change in market conditions, a failure to meet certain performance standards, a new strategy. Over time, initiatives to align culture to meet these conditions take on a life of their own, as any complex project does. A training program, for example, may be rolled out to large numbers of people. Leaders can loose touch, during the course of all this activity, with the original driver for the required change. And, with time, the new strategy may become business as usual.

It is valuable at this point to pause and review how the businesss requires people to behave. Is it still relevant that we focus on culture? Which elements of culture are now most important? Check Chapter 4 of my book Walking the Talk which lays out different culture options.

2. Reconnecting with the personal vision. There is a point after the first or second phase of activity associated with changing culture where there can be a pause in the action, and employees look to the leaders to see whether this is ‘just a program’ or a way of life. The answer will depend on the leader’s values, passion and vision. A leader who has integrated the cultural aspirations into who they are will be credible regardless of any planned, scheduled set of cultural activities.

As a cultural leader, this can be a good time to hold up the mirror. Check with others (formally through research, or informally) how they see your behaviour. Check with yourself whether you see culture as a task or a way of life. Consider hiring a new coach to refresh your own thinking. A leader who continues to commit to their own personal growth will continually refresh the culture, in line with his or her own learning process.

Netflix culture: setting standards in Silicon Valley

Netflix are one of the more successful companies to emerge from Silicon Valley in the past ten years. They are now the largest provider of on-line DVD rentals. About 3 months ago, a presentation which described their ‘Freedom and Responsibility’ culture started doing the rounds of the social media sites. It is one of most compelling presentations of its kind I have seen. Here it is. It combines values, with behaviors described in a very practical form, with company policies on issues like performance, with a simple description of culture and why it is important.

During a visit to the Bay area last week, I was told by people in three separate companies that they were feeling pressure as a result of the on-line presence of this presentation. Their board or executive were demanding why their company did not a) have a presentation of this quality and b) meet some of the standards Netflix describes as their cultural expectations.

Because of the age of most companies in the Valley – Netflix at 10 years old is considered mature – taking time to consider the issue of culture and leadership is a recent priority. Such a public communication of cultural intent introduces a new level of competitive threat to attacting and keeping the best talent. I have not found out yet whether the presenttion was posted by Netflix themselves, or someone else.

I want to highlight two learnings from this
1. If your story is a good one and true – my understanding is that Netflix does walk the talk – culture can be a competitive advantage which is hard to replicate. But in the days of social media the risks of too much talk and not enough action are equally great.
2. Be yourself. A company needs to build a set of cultural standards that are really their own. You are not Netflix, who are you? Companies only get to this level of truth when their leaders build the willingnesss, courage and self-awareness to find the answer to this question. Copying, or ‘going through the motions’ really shows. Part of the power of the Netflix presentation is that it reads true and original. .

Good "yes" and bad "yes"

Easy to imagine in a ‘can do’ culture that saying “yes” is a good thing. Actually I find that learning to saying “no” will often make a greater contribution to making a remarkable organization. People say “yes” for several different reasons, and some of these contribute to the type of culture which gets us into trouble. Here are some examples:

“Yes” for Approval. When someone is trying to please the boss, or to be generally seen as a nice guy, they will say “yes” when asked to do things. Trouble is that they will often over commit, or not ask enough questions to really understand what they are being asked to sign up to. Then they run into difficulties further down the track, because they have said “yes” too often, and they can’t deliver. They work longer and longer hours, are not able to prioritize, and run around trying to appease the people they are letting down. Approval cultures seem nice on the surface, but they can be ineffective.

“Yes” for Avoidance. Sometimes “yes” is the answer which avoids conflict. Many people do find it hard to have difficult conversations, so they say “yes” even when they do not really agree to a decision, or a commitment, because it is an emotionally easier place to be. If Avoidance has become the norm throughout the culture, and everyone is avoiding conflict, then there is unlikely to be any later difficult conversations if the commitment or decision is not implemented. So conflict is avoided all the way down the line. Of course there are disastrous effects on the business outcomes.

“Yes” to be a Winner. Some people say “yes” to prove how good they are, and to win some competitive race against their peers. Because their competition decides to make a new move, they have to immediately ‘up’ it, to prove they are better. Saying “yes” to outrageous demands can be a sign of one-upmanship. A misplaced over-confidence which is not backed by thoughtfulness. Over optimistic revenue targets, for example, are followed by costs to match, and it all spirals from there.

Yes to Achieve. Finally, there is the “yes” that you are looking for. I call it the Achievement “yes”. This “yes” is based on rigor and analysis. The risk anticipation and mitigation process is on-going. There is a plan. The trade-offs with other commitments have been thought through. The interdependencies discussed. There is stretch, but it is not based on hope and magic. An Achievement culture encourages this type of “yes”. I cover this culture in more depth in Chapter 4 of my book.

Learn to say “no”, so that when you say “yes” it carries with it your honor. Your word is your bond.

Social media: becoming a learner again

For three months I have been dedicating myself to learning about social media – how it works, how people use it and why they love it. I felt instinctively that it would impact social culture, change how people connected with each other and consequently impact corporate culture. After three months study and participation, I am sure that is the case, and I will pick up this theme in future blogs.

The experience has reminded me of what it takes to be a learner, and to build a culture of learning. I found it pretty humiliating to be a complete novice, to have to ask my children for help on some real basics, and to not know how to behave in the social media world. It is very easy, in those circumstances, to take one of several defensive responses which we have all seen in organizations: The same responses which make it tough to change culture – and to change ourselves. Avoidance (I kept finding other more important things to do), bravado (skimming the surface and then persuading myself and everyone else that I had it mastered) and blame (“it’s a stupid fad anyway, and just designed for love-sick teenagers, I mean 140 characters how insane is that”).

The vulnerability of being a learner can be scary but the prize is great. Learning is a value that I have found present in those leaders who successfully build a great culture. The willingness to reinvent oneself invites that same willingness in others. And culture change for sure involves reinvention!

Here’s two steps towards a learning culture.
1. Find people who are better than you at specific things. Study them. Ask for their help.
2. Set aside time with your team with this agenda: ‘The external world is changing. What do we have to learn to do, in order to keep up?’ Keep asking this question after the meeting.
3. Look around at your people. Evaluate their learning mind-set. Who shows humility? Who is prepared to use the words ‘I don’t know’. Who asks for help? Who stretches out of their comfort zone? These are the heroes of the learning culture. Praise them.

And if mastering Twitter would take you outside of your comfort zone, and you want to practice learning I recommend Joel Comm’s book http://bit.ly/eyOJd on the practicalities. And Chris Brogan’s blog and book Trust Agents, on the underlying mindset shifts that are occurring. http://www.chrisbrogan.com. They’ve changed my view of the world.

New venture, new blog on building corporate culture

This blog is for people with a passion to build remarkable organizations. I believe culture provides the best umbrella under which to achieve this, and learning to lead a great culture is a valuable skill for all leaders. When I wrote my book “Walking the Talk: Building a culture for success”, I did not have a satisfactory title for the book at the end of writing the first draft. My editor at the publishers Random House told me that the title should capture the essence of a book. She warned me that when authors could not come up with a title, they were often confused about what their book was really about. Spurred on, I reflected on what was the essence of leading culture. And realized it was to walk your talk as a leader.

I intend to blog every day, with tips, tools and ideas. Through this site, I want to build a community of people who aspire to lead with integrity, to be true to their word, and role model the cultures they wish to build. It is my dream that organizations will become places which lift people to function to the highest standards of behavior, rather than pulling them down to the lowest common dominator. We all spend so much time at work, and it makes me sad when I see people getting caught up in the politics prevalent in their culture, and feeling that they have to leave their real self at home. I have seen how a great culture draws out the best in people and, knowing that it is possible, I want to pass on my experience and advice about how that can occur. I also want to learn from the success of others – there are so many people doing great work on culture across the world, and I hope this site will attract many of them to share their own experiences. I imagine readers will be leaders of teams and organizations, HR professionals driving culture change, and consultants supporting those changes.

Please pass on details of this blog to others who you believe would value becoming a part of this community.

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