The “Management Affect” of Building Culture

Most will agree that culture is an important (if not critical) aspect of an organization’s success. Culture is an attractor of talent (employees), as well as customers. This blog will explore management’s role in building and affecting organizational culture.

Culture at Southwest Airlines

Herb Kelleher, the co-founder and retired CEO of Southwest Airlines was the chief architect of the organization’s culture.  Numerous articles have been written about Kelleher’s leadership style and approach to running the most successful airline in the US, if not the world. Kelleher built a culture based on “employees first,” and created policies and practices that reinforced the culture.

For decades the airline has maintained a “no layoff” policy, as well as a profit sharing program that has paid out consistently over the years – something unheard of in the airline industry. These policies are not just words; they demonstrate the commitment of building the “employees first” culture in the organization.

Humor and fun is a major ingredient of the Southwest culture.  Kelleher (also known as the “High Priest of Ha-Ha”) and his leadership team were known for their jokes, antics, and pranks that became part of the airline’s history, stories, and traditions. The Southwest stories and traditions act as “culture training,” and show employees that it’s okay to have fun on the job.

Even though Kelleher is no longer running the day-to-day operation, the spirit of the culture he designed still lives in all parts of the organization. When employees “look up” to their leaders at Southwest they observe behaviors that are consistent with the defined culture.  That gives employees permission to follow in their leaders footsteps to support, and nurture the culture.

A Culture of Excellence Pays Off

Steve Jobs is another leader known for building a legendary culture. Job’s has developed a culture of excellence based on designing and delivering great products, as well as an extraordinary customer experience.

Job’s does not just demand excellence from his organization; he demonstrates how it’s done. One example of his commitment to excellence and customer experience is through his keynote speeches.

Job’s is known to begin the development process for his presentations weeks in advance, and then rehearses over and over again until he feels that the presentation is ready for his audience.  Every word, every move, and every product demonstration is crafted to perfection.   Job’s delivers an outstanding product and experience at each keynote address.

When Apple employees “look up” they see a commitment to excellence in action, and you bet they follow Job’s lead. Apple employees are inspired to deliver great products and customer experiences (supporting the Apple culture) through their leader’s action and reputation.

Southwest and Apple are good examples of how management style plays a major role in building a company’s culture.

Culture Tips

So if you’re tasked with building a culture for a new organization, or tweaking an existing one, here are a few tips to get you started:

First, define the desired culture. You won’t know how to get there unless you have a destination in mind.

Next, look up. The behaviors of your senior leadership team will give insight on where to begin, or what you will need to change to reach the desired state.

Finally, get total buy-in and participation from the senior leadership team. You must have total support and cooperation from the top to make it work. Culture is a team sport and everyone has to play to make it reality.

Most important, don’t forget that every employee is constantly looking up to the leadership team. Employees get cues from their leaders at all levels, and the behaviors (including policies and practices) of the leadership team will ultimately define your culture.

Employee Engagement – Critical to Organizational Success

Your Employees Are Your Most Important Asset

Numbers, metrics, sales, service, results, outcomes, profit, loss, success or failure is all due to something that employees create, and affect – “affect” being the operative word here.  An organization’s brand is built, or broken by the people who represent the organization.

I have been reading a lot about employee engagement lately, and I’m glad to see that people are talking about it, especially during these challenging times.  The articles that I have been reading basically all agree that billions of dollars are lost each year due to employees who are disengaged with their work, and their organization.

Some articles blame a lack of leadership (I would agree), and some blame a lack of direction (I would also agree).  There are those who have come up with a “metric” driven solution (there’s probably something of use there), and others point to a lack of communication within organizations that create an environment of “I don’t know what’s going on so I don’t care” employee (yep, I see that as a major issue as well).

Common sense would tell us that if employees are not engaged, bad things are going to happen.  Critical resources (time and creativity) will be wasted if you have employees who just go through the motions each day while at work, creating the impression of “work.”  Anyone can come into an office (for the most part) and make it look like they are working, but it takes a person who has that fire and drive in their gut to make a real difference in an organization.

Disengaged employees drive mediocrity.  Just getting by each day and staying under the radar is a conscious, and unconscious goal of these types of employees.  A culture of mediocrity is a natural outcome due to this type of behavior, and it spreads like a disease across an organization.

Employee engagement does not have to be complicated, or take up a lot of expensive resources.  Basically, educating employees about, and getting them involved with the business is a good start.

Brand Ambassadors; An Overlooked Marketing Resource

There is an underutilized, and often overlooked marketing resource in your organization right now: your employees.

Each time a customer interacts with your organization there’s an opportunity to build your brand through your employees.  The experience your employees deliver to your customers will determine the ongoing perception, and reputation of the brand.

Internal brand engagement is a simple, cost-effective strategy that will help take your organization to new levels of success.  Employees who are truly engaged with a brand can create significant financial returns for their organization.

Your Employees Are Your Brand

Most organizations fail to recognize the role employees’ play in building a brand’s reputation.  Employees interact at personal and professional levels each day with current, as well as potential customers.  Each interaction is either a positive, or a negative representation of your organization, and your brand.

Every employee (not just customer-facing) plays an important role in supporting, and building a brand.  For example, an administrative assistant might provide support to an entire product development team working on the release of a new product. The support provided by the administrative assistant allows the product development team to focus on creating a cutting-edge product that will deliver on the brand’s promise.

Most employees don’t realize the effect, and the impact they have on building brand equity because they are rarely given the chance to get involved with that part of the business.  Brands are not just the responsibility of marketing departments; the responsibly and accountability of building and supporting a brand should integrated throughout every part of an organization.

Build A Brand-Centric Organization

So how do you go about building a brand-centric organization?  Create a “brand academy” or a similar type of group that has the responsibility to ensure that every employee receives initial, as well as ongoing education as your brand evolves and grows over time.  The brand should be linked to job descriptions, training programs, meetings and events.  Anyone who represents your organization should be required to participate in some type of brand education program.

Employees should read, see, feel, or hear something each day that represents your brand’s values, goals, and promise that will help to keep their connection, and their shared responsibility to be an owner, and ambassador.  Immersion is key to creating a brand-centric culture.

Brand education helps employees understand and connect with your organization’s vision and goals.  When employees understand and connect to a brand’s goals, personality, and promise, they become brand ambassadors.

Ambassadors help build your brand each day through their work and interactions. Your employees become a major part of your marketing resources by delivering relevant brand-centric experiences (internal and external) that help to build brand equity, and customer loyalty.

How To Develop Brand Ambassadors

There are several steps you need to take to begin building a team of ambassadors:

1. Develop an awareness / education program

Brand engagement does not magically happen, and it’s more than handing out “logo swag.”  An effective education program goes into detail about the brand’s positioning statement, values, goals and personality with emphasis on the benefit/promise.  Employees can’t deliver on the brand’s promise if they don’t know what it is, and how to deliver it through their work each day.

The training program should include tangible examples of how each employee group helps to deliver on the brand’s promise, and how their work contributes to the brand’s success.  Again, each employee plays an important role in either providing direct support to a customer-facing team, or they are in contact with customers each day.  For customer-facing teams it’s critical to define the desired customer experience, and design the customer experience around the brand.  The brand makes the promise, and the customer experience delivers the promise.  A well-designed customer experience always supports and delivers the brand’s promise in each customer interaction.

2.  Create a Brand-Centric Employee Experience

You should deliver your brand promise to your employees as well.  The employee experience will have a direct affect on your customers’ experience, and should be directly connected to your employee experience strategy for continuity, and consistency.  Designing and delivering an on-brand employee experience is an effective strategy to help build morale and motivation, as well as improve employee retention.

The Result

Your employees will work with a renewed sense of purpose and meaning, and the result is a more vibrant, educated, and motivated workforce that will bring positive results to your bottom line.

Customer Experience Strategies in Challenging Economic Times

Upturn a Downturn!

Challenging economic times require challenging the status quo.  Even when times are tough there are many low-cost opportunities to build, and nurture positive customer relationships that can help an organization accelerate through, and uphold the brand’s reputation.

Don’t Panic

When faced with an economic downturn many organizations resort to panic and reactive strategies.  Taking a reactive approach can cause a management team to frame action through a negative lens, and place focus on what’s wrong, instead of what’s right.

The goal becomes survival at any cost — as long as it doesn’t cost any money. Many organizations stray from logic by reducing headcount, cutting back on services, and eliminating customer perks. In an attempt to drive costs down, they drive customers to the competition.

These types of actions exacerbate the issue, and create a vicious circle of compounding problems.  Service quality drops, and customer satisfaction takes a dive.  As customer complaints increase, the cost and resources to handle the complaints increase as well.  Negative word-of-mouth advertising impacts sales, and that leads to additional costs in marketing, and customer retention.

Don’t Forget About The Employee Experience

Challenging times impact the employee experience as well.  Organizational changes affect employee morale, productivity, and confidence in the organization that in turn affects the customers’ experience.  Frustration can lead to employee attrition that drive up costs associated with hiring and training replacements.

In the preface of his book The Loyalty Effect author Frederick F. Reichheld states, “the fact across a wide range of industries is that a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates will yield a 25 to 100 percent increase in profits.”  The key word being retention!  It costs less to retain customers and employees than to replace them.

Simplicity is Key

In challenging times, think simple, but simple with an impact.  You don’t have to drive up costs to WOW a customer; in fact, it’s just the opposite. Most customers understand the challenges that organizations face, but they still want value for their money, and to feel appreciated.

The goal is to let customers know that you appreciate and value their business.  A sincere “thank you” from a customer service representative, or an employee that goes that “extra mile” to provide outstanding service will not only pleasantly surprise a customer, but will start a chain of word-of-mouth advertising.  Even a small token of appreciation in the form of a note, an email, phone call, or text message can do wonders do build a brand on a budget.  Most of the time it’s the smallest gestures that make the greatest impact, and help to enhance customer loyalty.

Imagine receiving a note, email, or text message from your mortgage, credit card, or telecommunications provider  saying something like:  “We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support,” or “We know that these are challenging times, and we want to thank you for paying your bill on time.”  For a minimal investment you would get a maximum return on customer perception, and good will.  That’s advertising you can’t buy!

This Too Shall Pass

The good news is better days are ahead, so go ahead and challenge the status quo! Take a challenge as an opportunity to differentiate yourself by surprising your customers, and building your brand.   Not only will it help you get through the leaner times, it will help you build a brighter future.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

I believe that the key issue that most organizations face today people have no idea where their organization is headed, and how they are supposed to help it get there, what I call Strategic North.

I have found this to be a critical part of a customer experience strategy, and essential to execution.  The entire organization has to understand what the new strategy is, how each department, division, team, and individual affects the strategy, and their role in the execution.

I have used an analogy in the past that has helped leaders understand how to help align their organizations and get employees to head down the same path.

Don’t Ask Alice!

In Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland …Alice comes to a fork in the road and spots a Cheshire cat in a tree.  “Which road do I take?  Where do you want to go?  I don’t know, Alice answered.  Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”

A lot of organizations are like Alice.  They are going somewhere, but collectively don’t know where, or the destination is constantly changing.  That in turn causes confusion, frustration, wasted time and resource as employees think they know where they’re headed, but end up going in the wrong direction.

But Dorothy Had The Right Idea

Where are we going?

“We’re off to see the Wizard.”

How will we get there?

“Follow the yellow brick road.  Follow the yellow brick road.  Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road.”

What’s the difference between Alice and Dorothy?

Alice was going somewhere but didn’t know where so it didn’t matter what road she took to get there.  Dorothy on the other hand was very specific about where she was going, and how she was going to get there.  But even more important, Dorothy repeated it to her “team” over, and over again.

Repetition is critical if you want people to understand the goal.  Organizations can learn a great lesson from Dorothy.  Be very clear about where you are headed, and repeat it over, and over again.

And let’s not forget …in the end, Dorothy arrived at her destination.  :-)

Vision, Strategy, and the Employee Experience

First, you have to know where you’re headed.  If you don’t know where you’re organization is headed  it will  end up in many different destinations.   It’s critical for an organization to develop a vision and strategy, but it’s even more critical for the leadership of the organization to not only effectively communicate the vision and strategy to its employees, but to continually reinforce the vision and strategy so it remains relevant, and guides the actions of every employee.

Keep it Simple

Simplicity is key to success. Getting rid of the corporate mumbo jumbo and fluff that nobody understands or takes seriously adds credibility to any change effort. If you want to move an organization ahead you have to challenge the status quo – and you have to move out of your collective comfort zone.

The Employee Experience

Research has shown time and time again that there are many benefits to enhancing the employee experience.  First, the employee experience has a direct affect on the customers’ experience. Happy employees typically equal happy customers. Second, major (an many times overlooked) employee costs such as lost time, productivity, morale, and attrition all affect the collective health and bottom line of an organization. These costs can be positively affected by improving the employee experience.

The Cost of Un-Engaged Employees

Billions of dollars are lost each year due to lack of employee engagement. According to Michael Hughes (2008) Executive Director, Strategy and Engagement at The Brand Union, “many companies fail to engage their employees with the brand. In the U.S., disengaged employees cost the economy $300 billion a year in lost productivity costs and this figure is growing rapidly.”

Most employees show up each day hoping to make a difference and to contribute to the organization’s success, but they can’t make a difference unless they know where the organization is headed, and how to help it get “there.”  I find that most employees don’t have a clue about how they affect the organization’s brand, but every day through their work they either build the brand, or damage it.  Now add the customer to the mix.  Do your employees understand the customer experience strategy, and how to deliver the desired experience that supports the brand’s promise?

Strategic North (see previous post) not only helps engage employees from a brand perspective, it adds seven additional areas of focus: the organization’s vision and values, the roadmap (how we get “there”), how the organization makes money, how the organization spends money, the brand promise, the customer experience strategy, and how employees affect the brand and the customer experience.

Strategic North is not a leadership/organization development philosophy per se; it’s an effective framework that any leader can follow to help overcome two major organizational challenges: alignment and employee engagement.  Strategic North takes eight points of focus that when combined help people understand critical aspects of the organization, as well as their job.  It keeps people focused and headed toward the vision of the organization as a deliberate and cohesive group.

That’s the beginning to employee engagement and organizational alignment; helping employees understand the basics about your organization.

Engage and Align Your Organization

I studied leadership and organization development in graduate school, and over the years have read hundreds of books, articles, and theories about leadership and organizational change. Each author offers different perspectives and models that promise to take organizations, and those that lead them to new levels of success.

Some authors make the argument that leaders are born or made, while others offer complex charts and diagrams that are designed to help people “see” how to lead.  I find that most books on organization development attempt to create a pseudo science based on theoretical models instead of real-life executable advice.

I believe that the best education comes from being an active observer of organizational life, and learning from great, and not so great leaders. The knowledge and experience I gained from working in many different types of organizations helped me to design a holistic organization development framework based on a more right-brained leadership approach (people and customer-centric).

The basic concept is to engage a workforce by educating employees about the organization’s brand, basic business knowledge, the customer experience goals, and the organization’s vision and strategy; in other words, getting employees involved with the business.

My theory is that when employees are armed with critical information about the business they will be more engaged in their work, and the knowledge about the business will help them to think, and act more strategically.

Every day I work with, and/or observe far too many people who are physically present, but mentally absent due to lack of caring and involvement with an organization. In addition, I see employees with the best of intentions going off in the total opposite direction of the organization’s goals and vision because they are not given the tools, and/or knowledge to work toward similar goals.

About the blog…

We all need to be Architects of Change. The world needs Architects of Change, and organizations need Architects of Change.  We need people who think different and challenge the status quo – people who get it, and are willing to take risks, challenge mediocrity, and create positive organizational change.

This blog explores unique ideas and models that include leadership and organization development, employee and customer experience strategies, as well as training and development models that are definitely outside of the excepted norms.

Challenging the status quo will be an obvious theme throughout this blog. Looking at the world through a static lens sustains the definition of madness: doing things the same way over and over again expecting different results.  It’s time to remove the old lenses and create new and exciting models of change that will help to address the unique needs of today’s organizations.

Get ready for bumpy ride …nobody said change was going to easy!  :-)