Introduction: Launching A Culture Change The Right Way
After a spasm of narcissism ("during my career I have been instrumental in helping create the high-performing cultures at some of the most admired companies in America (etc.).") the author comes to a point: an accidental culture that arises on its own is seldom a very good one: if it is to serve a purpose, an organization's culture be chosen, planned, and developed with a purpose in mind.
The values of an organization are expressed in its deeds, and too often bear little resemblance to its stated values. Even in the best of cases, leaders believe that all they need to do is proclaim a set of values and the organization will fall in line - even if they do not behave accordingly, and even if they lead others in the opposite direction.
There is no single culture that is right for all organizations nor a single path to achieving it. Each firm must define the culture it wishes to create and plan its own course to achieve it. Simply appropriating values-based programs wholesale from other companies doesn't work. And while consultants can be helpful in analyzing culture, a company can and must ultimately take action to define and shape its own culture.
Quote: "Great cultures can't be replicated or copied; you must launch your own, based on values you and your people determine are best for your organization."
If there is one shared secret among companies that create customer-centric cultures, it is that their leaders "profoundly understand" the importance of people (employees as well as customers) and more importantly, they act accordingly.
In comparing this book to other on the market, the author asserts that there are many that merely showcase the culture of high-performing organizations and quite a few that belabor the problems with present corporate culture and suggest what it ought to be - but "no previous book" has provided a detailed approach to choosing a culture that is a right fit and then working to cultivate it.
When Should You Consider A Culture Change?
Change should not be undertaken for its own sake, especially one that is as significant in terms of cost and impact as a change in culture. The author defines five symptoms that may indicate if a change is necessary:
- You are being outperformed by other firms in your industry/category
- You have a high employee turnover rate, particularly in key positions
- You employee and customer satisfaction surveys are consistently dismal
- Your financial performance is shaky or declining (which is "more often than not" the result of an ailing culture rather than external factors)
- Your efforts to improve performance seem to meet with little success
In the author's experience as a consultant, the results her clients achieve after addressing their culture seem to fall into these categories.
Most executives have a sense of what a great culture looks like, if only by noticing the difference between themselves and the peers who outperform them. They know which firms provide the best customer service, and that theirs does not. They noticed that the best companies have the happiest employees, where as they do not. They see the firms to which their best customers and employees are migrating, and are generally aware of the reasons for the exodus.
There are periodically incidents that are so dramatic that they call media attention, followed by legislative action (the JetBlue flight that trapped a plane full of passengers on the runway for ten hours - and the media attention and federal laws that arose as a result). They are played off as something that happened on a particularly bad day, but the reality is that they are merely the culmination of problems that have been unnoticed, or sometimes deliberately ignored, for far longer.
Beginning The Process Of Change
Your organization already has a culture, even if it was accidental and unintentional, so the process of change begins with considering the culture that already exists. Then, identify the qualities of the culture you wish to create, and consider that needs to be done to move from "as is" to "to be."
This is not something that is done by executives behind closed doors, but must involve your front-line people if it is to be successful. The best people to tell you whether your customers are satisfied are the customers themselves. The best people to tell you if your procedures are working is the workers who must follow the procedures.
(EN: I've a sense this isn't quite accurate. A firm's present employees and present customers are often happy with the status quo - or they would have already left. I wouldn't discount them entirely, but my sense is that if you want to get better answers as to what changes to make, you need to ask the kind of person you are not able to attract but wish that you could, or the person who has recently left and you regret having lost them, rather than those who are currently interacting with your firm.)
It is not merely a matter of being able to claim that these people were involved to "sell" the change. Their input is critical to determining the right changes to make.
From there, a "values blueprint" will emerge that codifies the values your customers and employees have agreed upon, which provides clear direction. But ultimately, change takes place only when those values are acted upon rather than merely documented.
Attract the "A" Players
A company's performance is the result of the performance of its employees, and attracting and retaining these "A Players" is a difficult proposition for many firms. Elite employees are seldom looking for work: even in a down economy in which firms must cut payrolls to persevere, these are the last people a firm will be willing to part with - and when they find themselves out of work, it is seldom long before they are snapped up by another firm that recognizes their talent.
While they are not immune to economic matters, the elite employees tend to look for firms whose values match their own, where they will have challenges and rewards, and where they look forward to going to work. In sum, they are the people whose skills and passions are well matched to their jobs.
The author's sense is that other theories in HR focus overmuch on the productivity of employees, but productivity is a result (not a cause) of a good job match. The degree to which a company performs well depends on the ratio of A Players to dissatisfied employees. And where one firm outperforms its competitors, it is often because it has a better ratio.
It is likewise the author's sense that the desire to have good customers focuses on an outcome rather than a cause. Customers want good service, and they flock to firms that deliver it - but a firm delivers service through its employees - hence it follows that the firm with better people provides better service, and attracts (and retains) more customers.
Becoming a values-driven company will not necessarily make your search for A-Players easier. It will likely make your company more attractive to them, but it will also attract a lot of undesirables as well. So you will still have to kiss a lot of toads to find the princes. What will change most dramatically is your ability to spot them - to know what kind of person you are looking for enables you to more quickly evaluate whether a given applicant is a match.
That's not to say the ratio of toads to prices will not improve: having the right values will attract more of the right people, largely because elites tend to communicate and network with other elites - which makes it more likely they will take interest in you.
The author tells an anecdote: she recruited a restaurant waiter who provided good service to become an airline flight attendant. Not only did he become an excellent employee, but he also brought aboard several of his friends and colleagues who also become excellent employees.
Six Principles For Creating A Values-Rich Culture
The author reiterates that there is no single set of values or approach to achieving them that will work for all companies, but in working with various firms she has noticed six common principles.
- You can't force culture. Neither a leader nor a committee can create a culture, but can only create the right conditions for a positive culture to arise.
- You will be perceived on the outside as what you are on the inside. A company cannot maintain a credible facade of being people-oriented toward customers while meanwhile treating the employees poorly.
- Success is doing the right things in the right way. The description here is a little vague, and rests on an example: a customer service "win" occurs when a customer gets good service without having to speak to a supervisor.
- People do what they are rewarded for doing. Many firms pay lip service to values and principles but use reward and threat to encourage contrary behaviour.
- Input equals output. Particularly for culture, the amount of benefit you get from changing culture will reflect the amount of effort you put into it. More importantly, this applies to maintenance as well - occasional effort gets occasional results.
- Values are critical when making tough decisions. In particular, that companies are quick to abandon their principles for a quick economic gain are clearly not serious about upholding their values.
Who Needs Values?
Values are not a luxury to be enjoyed by firms that are already profitable, but a means by which profitability is achieved and maintained. In terms of what companies need values: all of them.
Values are not the exclusive domain to the top level of management in a firm, but must be espoused, practiced, and cultivated throughout an organization. While the behaviour of top executives is a model for the behaviour of employees (they can set a positive or negative example), values are needed on all levels.
The key to building a values-driven firm is to focus both on the big picture and the small details - which may seem a very complex and difficult task, but it really is not. Changing a culture begins with getting the basics right - the principles that establish values and the behaviour that results. Once you get these right, the rest will fall more easily into place.
And again, the greatest challenge to organizations today is implementation. They recognized the need for a service-oriented culture, and even have a sense of what those qualities might be - but they are often dumbstruck about the way to implement the changes necessary to get their company to adopt those values. The author means to address that problem in this book.