Summary of the series of ten part series using films to illustrate desirable employee feelings

For the last ten days my blogs have been about what employees should feel if the organisation they work in has a high performance culture. The feelings I suggested they should have are:
1. Purpose
2. Hope / Belief
3. Commitment
4. Responsible
5. Valued
6. Challenged
7. Courage
8. Fulfilled
9. Peace of Mind
10. Pride

Expressing it in a different way, you could say that these are the feelings organisations should seek to create in their employees. It struck me yesterday as I was writing part ten that a summary would be helpful, so this is it. The first point I want to make is that these are the feelings that are appropriate in order to create a specific outcome i.e. that the organisation has
a culture of high performance. The outcome the organisation is seeking will of course influence the feelings it should seek to create. For example, if an organisation is wanting to create a culture wtih innovation at it's core then evoking a feeling of curiousity might be appropriate. Just as it's important that the culture of any organisation should support delivery of the business
strategy, so it's also important that what employees feel is also aligned. And the experience they have of working there must also be aligned. Put simply:

Strategy should drive the desired culture;
The desired culture should drive what employees feel;
What employees feel should be created by their experience;
And their experience should be designed and delivered deliberately.

That's the second point - that what you want employees to feel has to be deliberately and intentionally designed in. It doesn't just happen. Some companies would consider doing this 'touchy feely' nonsense. It's not. It makes sound business sense. The quality of our lives is determined by whether the feelings we have on a day to day basis are primarily positive or
negative. Positive feelings result in us feeling good and when that's the case we tend to perform better. It's common sense that feelings influence behaviour and results. So it's good business practice to consider employees feelings and to seek to make them 'the best that they can be'. I use that phrase intentionally because of course sometimes unpleasant decisions have to be taken
which are negative and produce negative feelings, but even when that's the case, the aim should be to make the people experience the best it can be in the circumstances.

One of the key reasons change programmes fail is that they are often designed and delivered very rationally. The project plan covers all the bases in terms of what's going to be done, by whom and when and this is all communicated out to the business - and yet it fails..... because there's no recognition of the emotional elements of change. People connect with change rationally AND
emotionally and both areas need to be designed intentionally if it's going to be embedded and sustained after the programme closes down.

The emotional elements are sometimes ignored because a) they're too difficult or b) they slow the project down or increase the cost. Neither are true - there are tools and techniques which can be used within a project to do this effectively and efficiently. It's also not true that time or cost are
impacted. It make take slightly longer to incorporate both in the planning phase but this is usually time saved during implementation. And doing it produces better results in terms of the quality of implementation and delivery of anticipated benefits.

Don't be persuaded that there's no point doing it - it's always worth the effort.

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part Nine)

This is Part Nine of ten blogs in which I'm using films to illustrate the feelings organisations should seek to evoke in employees if they want to create a high performance organisational culture.

Number 9 - Peace of Mind
Just what does 'peace of mind' mean to you? For me it's a feeling of calm, an absence of worry. It's a feeling that a person might have as a result of something they've done e.g. "I've prepared really well for my exams so I don't feel at all worried", or it might be a feeling someone has as a result of their relationship with someone else e.g. "I trust you completely so I have no worries
about it". And it's a feeling that organisations should seek to foster in the relationship with employees.

One of the benefits of someone having peace of mind about their employer relationship is that it assumes a high degree of trust. I can't think of any circumstances in which an employee would say that they feel peace of mind at work and yet they don't trust their employer. The two things go hand-in-hand. Trust is critically important in the relationship, if an employee doesn't trust
their employer one of the foundations of a healthy relationship is missing. Think about any of your relationships - would you be able to say that you have a great relationship with any individual or organisation and yet you don't trust them? No, thought not.

So how do companies generate trust and create peace of mind? I suggest it's about being open and honest, communicating things that it's right and proper for employees to be aware of, being transparent and not hiding things and above all .........being fair. Too many organisations operate with hidden agendas, keeping things from staff and making decisions with no explanation and
in a way that they find difficult to understand. Sometimes it's done with the best of intentions, I was talking to an HR Manager just last week about pending redundancies in his organisation. It became clear in the conversation that because they didn't want to worry people they haven't communicated anything - all the work is being done in the background so that they can
communicate with those affected on a specific date. Under further questionning he said that he thought it would probably come as a big shock to people because there hasn't really been any communication suggesting that the business is struggling and needs to cut costs. I understand the logic and I'm sure it comes from a place of positive intent, but the impact will be damaging and it will take a long time to repair. Everyone in the business, irrespective of whether they are directly affected, will wonder for a long time whether there are things they're not being told. Trust will break down and it could be even worse if the process followed to select people for redundancy isn't seen to be transparent and fair. Doing it in a way which maintains trust, creates a feeling the the organisation is doing all it can to do things in the right way, and as a result enables employees to feel peace of mind isn't difficult, but it does mean thinking designing how you want employees to feel into the process at the outset. And by the way, doing it this way doesn't mean it costs more or takes longer to undertake people change. It's not a case of having to do extra things, it's just doing things differently. And the results are always better
as a result.

So .....I suggest designing activity which has a people impact specifically so that it creates trust and peace of mind.

The film I've chosen to illustrate peace of mind today is one of my personal favourites - 'Lost in Translation'. It's about the accidental realtionship that develops between bob (played by Bill Murray) and Charlotte )Scarlett Johansson) whilst they are both in Tokyo. Bob, an internationally recognised actor whose career is declining, is on location filiming a series of
adverts for a brand of whisky. Charlotte who is much younger and more recently married is accompanying her photgrapher husband on a business trip and is left in Tokyo whilst he is in other parts of Japan. Bob and Charlotte initially meet casually, in the lift and the bar of the hotel but gradually they start to seek out one another and a relationship develops. They eventually spend nearly every waking hour together and a deep bond develops, albeit one that they both
know will end when it is time for each of them to leave.

The thing I like best about it is that their relationship remains platonic, despite strong sexual undercurrents. They spend time in each others bedroom, they lie on the bed together talking but both seem to intuitively know that taking it further would be something that would damage the relationship and they'd later regret. And so their relationship is one of deep friendship, in which each trusts the other implicitly and has peace of mind because they both know they are under no pressure to have sex. And their relationship is all the more beautiful and sublime as a result. As the film closes they say goodbye publicly and somewhat formally in the hotel lobby before Bob gets in a taxi to go to the airport. The final scene, in which Bob sees Charlotte in a crowd of
shopppers and then stops the taxi to go to her and say goodbye again, is simply a masterpiece!

Do they love each other - yes I think they probably do. Do they realise that once they leave Tokyo the relationship could never work - I'm sure they do. Will they treasure the relationship for the rest of their lives - yes, I'm sure they will. And will they feel any sense of regret about it - not in the slightest because they didn't betray their partner. And as a result, in addition to the peace of mind which exists between them, each can feel peace of mind about their role in the relationship.

You can see the film trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU0oZsqeG_s

I'll post the tenth (and final) part of this series tomorrow.

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part Eight)

Part Eight of ten blogs using films to illustrate the feelings organisations should try to evoke in employees in order to create a high performance organisational culture.

Number 8 - Fulfilled
The dictionary defines fulfilment as 'bringing something into effect'. It also explains that it's 'a feeling of satisfaction at having achieved something you've desired'. So in an organisational context it can be described as employees feeling good about delivering their objectives. That's personal fulfilment. But leaders in organisations should hope that in addition to the personal satisfaction, they also feel good about the contribution they are making to the success of the organisation as a whole. Because caring about the wider organisation is an illustration that they care about it and are connected to it.

I'm going to focus on two of the things which must be in place to create an environment in which employees feel both these things. Firstly, employees must have clarity about what successful delivery of their objectives means. Objectives must be clear and concise, with clear measures of success. They should understand in advance what successful delivery of them means. If it's not clear, don't be surprised if motivation to achieve seems low. I sometimes think managers word artfully vague objectives intentionally so that they have the power of determining whether their employee has succeeded or not. Another common cause of low motivation is to set the objective so high that the employee feels there's no point trying to achieve it because it's just not achieveable. Either way, the organisation suffers because of low levels of motivation.

Secondly, individuals should understand how their objectives align with and contribute to business objectives. They should know that achieving their objective contributes to the success of organisational objectives. If they have an objective which can't be linked to a wider business objective then it does beg the question why they're doing it at all! This line of sight between individual and organisational objectives is a key part of connecting individual employees with the organisation in a meaningful and value added way.

These are the key things to get right to create a environment in which people feel fulfilled. That's not to say that other things aren't important. Leadership behaviours and reward and recognition are just two examples of other influences - but objectives are a good place to start.

And the film I've chosen to illustrate fulfilment is 'Field of Dreams'. The film features Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner), a poor farmer, struggling to make ends meet, who hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in his corn field in Iowa. He argues with his wife, his friends and his bank manager over his irrational decision to build it, always believing that it's the right thing to do despite not really knowing why. He just feels he has to. As the film progresses ghosts of former baseball players, including his own long-dead father appear to play a game on the diamond Ray has built. The film ends with Ray finding fulfilment, meeting his long-dead father, and helping others involved in the game to resolve outstanding issues. And at the same time he resolves hisown financial problems when baseball fans come from far and wide and pay to see the game. It's a very implausible plot - but a very entertaining film!

There are two key links for me between the film and todays topic. The first actually argues against my previous comments about objectives. Ray has no idea why he's building the diamond. He perhaps has a broad idea of what success means for him, and he develops it further as the film progresses, but certainly has no idea of how it fits with the bigger picture until very late in the film. On the other hand, when this becomes clear to him his hapiness, satisfaction and sense of fulfilment is totally clear. Perhaps there's a lesson there also about sometimes trusting our intuition?

I also like the strapline - "Sometimes, when you believe the impossible, the incredible comes true."

See the film trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-J-9IPlT4

I'll post part nine tomorrow.

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part Seven)

Part Seven of ten blogs using films to illustrate what you'd want employees
to feel in a high performance organisational culture.....

Number 7 - Courage
One dictionary definition of courage is: “the power or quality of dealing with or facing danger, fear, pain etc". It comes from the old French word ‘corage’, which is derived from ‘cuer’ or heart. Possessing courage is having the ability to overcome the fear you have about something and because fear is a feeling it’s about being able to subdue the feeling such that it doesn’t prevent you from taking action. It isn’t a word that’s used often nowadays and tends to be thought of as being more relevant to past times, when being courageous usually meant physically facing your foes. Nevertheless, I believe it’s a quality that is vital for the success of any business in the present day.

It's essential for two reasons. Firstly, organisations have to be able to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, to take advantage raipdly of opportunities and react just as rapidly to emerging risks. This is only possible if the people who work in the organisation can adapt quickly - they are the organisation. But change of any sort can be scary, the culture of the
organisation has to support it (this goes back to yesterday's post about Challenge), and employees have to be courageous enough to change, often without knowing exactly what the outcome will be.

Secondly, courageous employees are critical to prevent mistakes. In tough economic times the cost of mistakes could be disastrous, the difference between success and failure. It’s become much more important to prevent them. By the way, I don’t intend to suggest that making mistakes is a bad thing. It’s only human and I think legendary basketball coach John Wooden, was absolutely correct when he said “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing
anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” My point is that it’s not a good thing to make mistakes when they could have been prevented. And the best people to do that are the people who work in the organisation. In the aftermath of a big mistake, when the analysis of what went wrong is taking place, it’s common to hear that someone disagreed with the decision, they ‘knew’ it wasn’t right – but said nothing. They chose to stay silent because of fear – they were
worried they’d look silly, they didn’t want to be the only one disagreeing, or they didn’t want to ‘rock the boat’ because it might damage their career. And at the moment they chose to say nothing, the chance to prevent the problem was lost. It takes courage to speak up. Every organisation should be doing all they can to 'encourage courage'.

The film I've chosen to illustrate courage is 'A Knight's Tale'. Inspired by 'The Canterbury Tales', the film takes the familiar elements of knighthood tales of adventure and gives them some modern day twists. It's amusing to see that the crowd at the first jousting tournament is
clapping and singing along to Queen's hit 'We Will Rock You'. And you can't help but compare the event to modern day football matches. Indeed humour is a theme throughout the film. The central character is William (played by the late Heath Ledger), a poverty stricken son of a thatcher, who dreams of one day becoming a knight. Class barriers make the all but impossible, bu tthanks to a little help from his friends, William gets a chance to "change his stars," as his father enouraged him to do. His fellow squires help him to train and transform into the role of a
nobleman and he assumes the name Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland.

But every dreamer must of course overcome struggles before their dreams are realised. William faces three: his main adversary at tournaments - Count Adhemar, the difficulties he has with his relationship with the woman he loves - Jocelyn, and having his real identity discovered, with potentially huge consequences. The scene when those around him encourage him to flee to avoid punishment after his true identity has emerged is the one in which his courage shines through when he explains to them that as a knight he cannot. The moment when his pretence is
uncovered and he is farthest away from his dream is also the moment when through his behaviour he truly assumes the identity of the person he yearns to become. Its message is that we can all be who we want to be, by facing our fears, daring to take risks in pursuit of our goal and accepting help from others. And if we do, we can 'change our stars'.

If you're looking for something which is a serious reflection of life at the time this film is not for you - but if you want a laugh whilst watching an adventure, it's great. See the film trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH6U5y086hw

I'll post part eight tomorrow.

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: @accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part Six)

Part Six of ten blogs using films to illustrate what you'd want employees to
feel in a high performance organisational culture.....

Number 6 - Challenged
A mistake some organisations make is to pursue an employee engagement programme to produce 'happy' employees. Of course it's a good thing to have happy employees but there's a real risk that without focus a programme like this could produce a 'nice' place to work - in which performance is poor. Organisations that don't challenge people to perform at their best risk creating a culture of mediocrity. If a high performance culture is the desired outcome - actions are required to ensure that high performance becomes an expectation, and poor
performance is challenged and managed.

It's also important to provide challenge to motivate high performers, to provide them with work with stretches them and provides wth a sense of achievement. They want to be stretched by difficult objectives because they develop as a result of the experience they go through in succeeding.

Of course, it's also true that some extreme organisations are too full of challenge and they can become places in which people are fearful of failure and as a result are unwilling to step forward and try things. It's just too much of a risk to step forward because of the damage to the individuals reputation if they fail. So it's very important to balance challenge with support to remove the fear and enable failure without dire consequences for that failure.

Leaders of course play a pivotal role in getting the balance right between challenge and support. Whether the organisation creates the right balance and thereby the right culture is in large part down to the way in which they lead and manage people on a day to day basis.....

The film I've chosen to illustrate challenge (and support) is 'Coach Carter'. Another true story, this time of Ken Carter, a successful sports shop owner who, in 1999, accepted a job as basketball coach at his old high school. Challenge is a theme throughout the film. Dismayed by their poor attitude and performance, he set out to improve his players performance on and off the court. He immediately imposed a strict regime in written contracts that included stipulations for respectful behaviour, a dress code and good grades as a pre-requisite to being on the team. Results immediately turned round and the team was undefeated on it's way to the 1999
State Championship. However, when he received the news of poor grades for a number of players Coach Carter locked the gym and stopped the team from playing. It was a decision that received national attention - and much criticism. And yet ultimately, whilst the team lost the state final, he was vindicated when individually, members of the team grew in stature and several went on to to unexpectedly attend university.

See the film trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GScWr8-wEhY

Part seven tomorrow.

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: @accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part 5)

Part five of my series of ten blogs using films to illustrate the feelings organisations should seek to evoke in employees to create a high performance culture....

Number 5 - Valued

People want to know that they are valued, in every element of their life. They want to know that people value their relationship with them. At home they want to know they are loved by their partner and members of their family. Socially they want to know that they are respected by friends and acquantainces. As a customer, they want to feel that their supplier doesn't take them for granted. And at work they want to know that their employer considers them to be important - for the contribution they make to the organisation and for who they are as an individual.

When the organisation recognises and rewards them people feel valued and appreciated. They feel respected and their levels of confidence and self esteem are higher. And as Abraham Maslow suggested, they move up the hierarchy of needs. As they receive respect from others their self respect and self esteem grows too and they move towards self actualisation where they can realise their full potential, for the benefit of the organisation. They become willing to give more effort and commit themselves more fully to its purpose, providing of course it's one they consider ecological (see Part 2 of this series for an explanation). The problem is that it's hard to know what to do to ensure people feel valued, but it is what the best managers do to get the best from their people. They know that their investment in making people feel valued pays dividends in terms of its return.

The film I've chosen to illustrate the benefits that come from feeling valued is "The Blind Side", the story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American boy from a broken home who is taken in the Tuohys, a well-off white family. They put a roof over his head, and so much more. They provide him with love and support and as a result of feeling valued by them, he values himself. As an American football player and as a student, he works hard and with the help and support of those around him becomes an All-American left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. It's a true story and in interviews that I've seen with the 'real' Tuohys, they also talk about how much they benefited from Michael's presence in their lives too.

The film really illustrates the power of being loved and feeling valued. See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ3kwMq18-8

Part 6 tomorrow!

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: @accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part 4)

Part four of the series of ten blogs focusing on the feelings you'd want employees to have in a high performance organisational culture. Hope you agree with the film I've chosen today - let me know if there's a better one!

Number 4 - Responsibility
We sometimes talk about having responsibility for something. And often it's expressed negatively, as though the 'something' is onerous. I'm placing a different interpretation on it, feeling responsible as something that's positive because it's something we care about, something we feel we have the power to influence and steer, something we're responsible for. And in this context it's surely something every organisation would want its people to feel. Because feeling responsible for the organisation implies being informed about it and the market in which it operates, being proactive, taking ownership, seeing beyond personal interests and instead seeking to do what's best for the business as a whole, striving to find better and more efficient ways of doing things and perhaps most importantly of all, each person being responsible for their own behaviour. Because enough of the right behaviours from people mean success, in whatever way it's defined. If behaviour is aligned with the desired outcomes results will follow.

The film I've chosen to illustrate feeling responsible is 'The Pursuit of Happyness' and with due recognition to Stan Williams who blogged about the film way back in 2006, I think there's a number of points worth making about it. Incidentally, the film is based on the true story of Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith), a bright and talented salesman who has unfortunately invested his money in a product that he's unable to sell. Struggling to make ends meet, Gardner's wife leaves him and he finds himself and his five-year-old son evicted from their apartment. When he lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm, he and his son have to endure many hardships in pursuit of his dream of a better life for the two of them.

Back to the key points about it....
Under huge pressure and despite all the difficulties he encounters Chris is totally dedicated to and responsible for his young son. On face value the film could be interpreted as being about the pursuit of money, but it's much more than that, the reason he wants the money is to provide for his son. He could perhaps have done that by seeking a lower paid but more reliable job but he also recognises the responsibility he has to nurture and achieve his dream of becoming a stock broker. He ensures that the two things co-exist and delivers against both.

There are three specific things that reasonate with me:
1. As the title suggests, pursuit is important. Chris had to pursue the role as a stock broker in order to provide for his son as he wanted to, and to be happy himself. As the saying goes "if it's worth having it's worth fighting for". Chris fought to pursue it.
2. It initially grated with me that 'happyness' was spelt wrong. But isn't that the point? The miss-spelling makes us look again at the word and wonder what's wrong with it. It makes us realise what the real word - 'happiness' truly means. But think deeper and there's another connotation, that just as good spelling has to be pursued and corrected, so does fatherhood. And to extend it still further in the context of my blog, so does organisational culture and employee engagement. These things don't just happen, but they are worth pursuing.
3. Probably the most well known quote from the film is "Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something ....You gotta dream, you gotta protect it ....If you want something, go get it. Period." I love that quote!

See the trailer for the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcZTtlGweQ

Part 5 tomorrow!

By the way, the blog I refer to by Stan Williams is here is you want to read it: http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2006/12/pursuit-of-happyness.html

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: @accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Integrity crisis? Employees moral compass and the #customerexperience

I was talking to my father in law last night and he was telling me about an experience he's had over the last few days with Homeserve, a company who position themselves as Britain's home emergency and repair experts. He isn't very 'handy' around the house so decided years ago that it was worthwhile arranging some cover so that if ever he needed help he could get it quickly and easily. So ten years ago he arranged this service with Homeserve and has paid them an annual premium of £300 ever since.

He hasn't needed to use it before but for the first time earlier this week had a problem that he needed their help with. He told me that whilst loading the dishwasher he felt a drip of water on the back of his neck and looking up, saw water dripping out of a light fitting. His inspection upstairs quickly revealed that the toilet was leaking where the trap goes through the floorboards. Unsure about what to do he rang Homeserve and they very helpfully explained how he could stop the problem from becoming any worse by turning off the stop valve. They then, again very helpfully, said that they'd arrange for a plumber to call to find the cause of the leak and put it right. He told me that at this point he was impressed and was congratulating himself on how wise he'd been to arrange the cover.

The next day the plumber called and looked at the toilet. His conclusion was ......that it would be easier to "accidentally crack the toilet bowl" and claim on his home insurance to get it replaced. Note: claim on his home insurance and not on his Homeserve cover. My father in law asked whether the colour and shape of any replacement would match perfectly with the bath and sink, and was then told that the insurance company would pay for everything to be replaced if an exact match couldn't be found.

Dubious, even with his limited knowledge of DIY, about whether this made sense my father in law thanked the man and said he'd think about it. He then called a friend, who had a friend etc who was a plumber and this new contractor visited later to take a look. His response was that it could be easily fixed and he'sactually done the work this morning for a total of £60. The outcome is that when the repair is done my father in law intends to call Homeserve to cancel the cover. I suspect that what happened was the result of a 'rogue' individual rather than a policy at Homeserve but they will obviously suffer the loss of a long term and profitable customer.

There seem to be more and more stories in the press and on TV at the moment about the dishonesty of workers and the impact of their actions on the customer relationship. It's not hard to find stories of cowboy builders, of dishonest garages, cheating plumbers and the like. And there have also been well publicised examples of bigger issues - mis-sold payment protection insurance being a prime example. I was also told of a problem at a bank in which insurance salesmen had been achieving more sales (and therefore more commission) when selling car insurance by quoting using a cheap postcode area and then changing the postcode on the live system when the policy was set up. As the quoting system didn't link to the live system it was a scam they ran to reduce premiums and thereby sell more policies. And Homeserve itself has recently been embroiled in a miss-selling scandal with suggestions that staff were selling cover without fully explaining what the customer was paying, or the package they were buying.

Set this alongside the research that Essex Univeristy did recently which concluded that Britain may be facing a future 'integrity crisis' and it's clear that the UK is experiencing a decline in moral standards. The research illustrated that lying, adultery, drug taking, breaking the speed limit, drink-driving, and handling stolen goods are all seen as more acceptable than they were at the turn of the century. The author of the report said "It appears Britons are growing more and more tolerant of low level dishonesty and less inclined to sanction activities which would have been heavily frowned on in the past.” As an aside, isn't this also the reason that there's such an issue currently with bogus claims for whiplash following non-existent car crashes? If no-one was responding to the unsolicted phone calls and text messages the companies operating the scams would stop. People must be willing to submit dishonest claims because the problem seems to be growing rather than going away?

This integrity crisis should be a consideration for organisations when thinking about their customer experience delivery. Businesses are going to need to create an organisational culture which compensates for the likelihood that the decline in integrity amongst the population as a whole will be reflected also in its employees. It's going to become more important for their culture to make any form of dishonesty unacceptable. Integrity must become a core part of it, reflected in policies and procedures, in recruitment and career progression, in reward and recognition, in product development and pricing, in sales practices, in decision making processes and in behaviours - it has to be woven through the fabric of the organisation. It's critical for delivery of a customer experience that will ultimately mean that customers trust and love the brand.

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield

Twitter: @accordengage

Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019

Why Organisations Don’t Try to Cultivate Culture #Culturechange

I haven’t come across an executive who is unaware that there is a culture at work within his or her organisation. I’ve met a few who haven’t made the link between culture and the performance of their business but the majority seem to understand that the two things are inextricably linked. I’m therefore surprised how often there’s no conscious, planned activity underway to shape their culture or continuing the theme from yesterday, to cultivate it.

Either consciously or unconsciously, every organisation is shaping their culture. The way in which it responds to internal and external influences, the manner in which decisions are taken and the impact of those decisions, the tone of communications, the behaviours of managers and leaders, the things they recognise and reward, the behaviours they encourage, things they give attention to and talk about (or not), things they tolerate or turn a blind eye to.....are all examples of ways that they cultivate their culture, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not.

Ignorance of the link between culture and performance is may be an excuse for them,
albeit a poor one! So what's the excuse in organisations where executives do understand the link but still don’t consciously and deliberately cultivate it?

In my experience there are four key reasons:

1. Fear
   This is a reflection of the human fear of change. We might not like our current circumstances but stay where we are because if we change it might be even worse. “Better the devil you know” and all that. It’s fear of losing control, of making things worse, fear of trying to change and failing, fear of succeeding and having a new set of problems, fear of the unknown. When fear is the dominant driver in the business it will be slow to change, slow to react to changes in the market – and at risk.
2. Complacency
   Organisations that have no burning platform for change are often complacent. Results will typically be ok, not great but also not poor enough to make change unavoidable. So the “we’ve always done it that way” and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality prevails. These organisations will be ‘comfortable’ places to work, but not great places that encourage and stimulate people to achieve more. These organisations are insular and not particularly concerned about what competitors are doing – and consequently are at risk. See Kodak for an example.
3. Habit
   When the senior team in an organisation gets too comfortable and habitual ways of managing become embedded, it becomes difficult for leaders to step outside their comfort zone and drive change. It becomes in their best interests to safeguard the status quo – because the alternative would mean them changing. Decisions are communicated and if challenged, explained by suffixing “because the Chairman / CEO says so”. Leaders in these organisations might be perceived as arrogant and disinterested in change and these behaviours put the organisation at risk.
4. Degree of difficulty
   Some organisations know they should change their culture, thet want to but just don't know how to do it. They perhaps can’t put their finger on what’s wrong currently, and consequently they don’t know exactly what needs to change, and even if they do they don’t know what actions to take to do it or how long it will take, how employees will react, or who
   needs to do what. These organisations are ambitious for change but don’t know where to start and so stress is part and parcel of working there, because it’s hard work overcoming the difficulties inherent in the culture. They experience other organisations doing what they do ......but doing it better and this puts them at risk.

And then there are organisations who understand it and are consciously and deliberately shaping and cultivating their culture. It's a culture that is aligned with their vision, their strategy and their business objectives. They're the organisations you admire and respect AND are achieving extraordinary performance.

What group is your organisation in?

Get in touch, I'd like to help......


LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: @accordengage
Telephone: 0044 7906 650019