We've all read the blogs and articles
that say quite clearly that after strategy, company culture is key to
the success of your business, but how can you translate the
psycho-babble into real world techniques that are actually deployable
within your organisation, even if you are not a
FTSE / Fortune 500 company.
The following blog is my own personal way of
doing things, I don't claim it to be anything approaching industry standard, though it does work,
and draws upon initiatives that have been rolled out across highly
successful organisations all over the world – if anyone else has
other ideas – pitch them in, always glad to hear of other
techniques.
One of the biggest hurdles in tackling culture is
acknowledging that the road to success is nothing if not long, , you will
wonder if, A) its working, B) its worth it and, C) whether it is
going to result in a bottom line improvement.
Its absolutely key that you keep the
faith with the plan, follow it through, it WILL work.
Okay, so we know its going to be tough
but in the end of benefit, how do we start?
Naturally as with
anything in business it must be planned, and the first stage of
planning requires us to health-check the current culture that you
have. Don't necessarily assume that it is ripe for change, things may
be coming along just fine, and merely require a little tweaking to
get things on track, be prepared however to have a top to bottom
re-vamp.
What are the signs of poor culture?
This is a valid question, and one that for senior management is hard
to answer. There are few ways that we can actually measure the
culture within the company, though there are a couple of tricks to
deploy, the chief of these is employee retention stats, the other is
your staff sickness record. If you ask people how happy / motivated /
engaged they are at work, the chances are that you will not get a
particularly accurate response – for varying reasons.
If you are a big player with deep
pockets, you might design a psychometric test that is able to
determine how your team is feeling, but for most of us, that just is
not an option.
For the most part assessing the
business will need a qualitative approach, and this is often where
specialist advice is sought, as, its the type of thing that cannot be
undertaken by anyone in your business in a position of authority for
fear of self interest creeping into staff responses.
Phase 1 – reactive culture
Lets skip a step here, lets assume that
you have checked staff retention and sickness figures, they are slightly worse
than the average for your industry, you have also run a qualitative
assessment with staff, and have identified some key areas that lead
to staff feeling disengaged or otherwise undervalued, be careful not
to ignore what you might think is trivial, such as the quality of
coffee from the machine ( its all valid, though obviously some things
are more valid than others).
Also be very careful to be as objective
as possible (easier said than done I know) I have had experience
where a number of issues have cropped up within businesses that staff
and bosses have been wrangling over for years, and as a result has driven a wedge between shop floor and management.
If an 'old
chestnut' of worker dissatisfaction crops up, look at it as an
opportunity – an opportunity to make the solving of this issue a
standard bearer for the new regime – if it can be finally resolved,
it will work wonders.
What you now have is the raw data with
which to build a plan, I would of course at this stage recommend that
the plan is SMART and that critically it is 'bought into' at the
highest level of the business.
What of course we have here is very
much a reactive plan, that deals with issues that prevent good
culture, what they will not do alone is create great culture
Phase 2 – proactive culture
Once the reactive issues have been
resolved take the process to phase 2, this is the hardest part,
taking a now content workforce, and transforming them into fully
engaged motivated people, not afraid to come up with ideas, always
willing to give 100%
This is the part of the process which
owes less to common sense, and more to creativity, but also its the
part that generates the most business benefit.
Whilst it would be folly to try to tell
you how to go about a phase 2 process in great detail, what I can
tell you is that one of the prime issues to resolve is to stop
managing the business and start leading it. In short manager's must
be obeyed, however leaders inspire. Great I hear you cry, but how do
we do that?????
In general a leader will trust staff
more than a manager, they will work hard to set the example, give
praise when its due (publicly) Let's face it people have written
books on the subject, so I'm not even going to approach to do it
justice in these few paragraphs, suffice to say management books need
to be thrown away at all levels, to be replaced by a culture of
leadership.
As for other techniques, look at
companies with great culture, call them, talk to them, get under the
skin of what worked for them, so that you can replicate their
success.
Once in full swing keep monitoring your
retention and sickness levels on a monthly basis, this will help to
determine the degree of your success, you should also start to see
profitability rise (though not *necessarily* turnover)
In conclusion
To some getting
the culture in a business right can feel a little like the tail
wagging the dog, after all you are doing a lot of listening to what
effects the workforce, and it can feel like you are indulging them –
however you must fight that feeling.
Those in your business who are
not the right for your culture, usually the ones taking advantage
of the new regime, and giving little back in terms of extra
commitment and diligence – this is where you need to get tough, if
its just not happening, perhaps they need to find work some place
else. Don't shirk this, everyone from the top to the bottom needs to
have bought in fully – otherwise its just not going to work.
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