4 steps to better culture

8/7/2019 4 Steps to Better Culture

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4 Steps to Better CultureBrought to you bywww.LeadingStrategies.net

By Mike Friesen

Every organization has a personality and this personality is a result of thecollection of personalities within. To this culture geek, the interplay ofpersonalities that create a company persona is a source of endless fascination not only from the what-is-it-now perspective but in the what-it-could-bedepartment. I hope youll agree the possibilities are endless when we startimagining.

So what if you could make a few changes to improve this overall personality.Maybe youre a manager who is both aware of your enterprise sacred cows and

cultural improvement opportunities. As you know, culture progress will improvecustomer service and, more importantly, the bottom line. May I suggest thefollowing four ideas? Perhaps theyre useful or will trigger other thoughts for yourorganizations long-term good.

1. Give your receptionist a raise. Who is the first face or voice for many ofyour customers? Maybe its not a receptionist in your case. Maybe its an outside

sales person or a repair technician, etc. Whoever thisperson or team, they should be rewarded on making agreat first impression because this initial interactioncan be very powerful.

What would you pay for customer loyalty? What wouldyou pay for customer word-of-mouth advertising? Bothof these items and more are influenced by the

customers first contact with your organization. How much attention do you payto the entry point of your company?

Specific Take-aways:

Identify who is usually your organizations first face or voice. What are the things you most want in your first customer contact beyond

the traditional position description details? Communicate thoseexpectations to the frontline employee.

In addition to their normal job duties, give pay consideration to thisperson or team for a critical public relations (PR) role. In the case of areceptionist, the duties are much more than just answering the phone orgreeting a walk-in customer. Are you broad enough in the totalcompensation thoughts?

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4 Steps to Better Culture

How well do you know this employee? Are there any other welcomeconsiderations you could give for the PR role such as time off, educationopportunities, cross-training, etc.?

2. Steal your senior executives office chairs. For

a culture to grow and thrive requires activity. Not just busy work but engaged hearts and minds with thenatural variety of perspective. A senior manager thatasks multiple questions and does a lot of listening willlearn much about what makes the culture tick and howit could be better. Most people are genuinely happy to

give their opinions on most topics. Also, asking honest questions has a naturalside effect of building trust; what company couldnt use more of this commodity?

Although these conversations make look like small talk, the smart executive will be constantly on the lookout for cultural facts to include in senior leveldiscussions and decisions. Look beyond the present discussion. What does itmean for your best customers, vendors, suppliers, and alliance partners?


Here are starter questions to ask. You are trying to discover whatemployees think about their workplace, NOT just what they say.

o If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?o If you could make one policy/software/process improvement in

your area, what would that be?o If you were the boss, what would you do? OR What do you think is

the right thing to do in this case? (In response to a complaint.)o

How could we lower the use of sick days?o What makes you run to work and walk home? What makes you

walk to work and run home?o Would you recommend your mother work here? If so, why? If not,

why not? (Thanks to Lee Hawkins for this question.)

As you talk to employees, tune into their body language. How open arethey? What would a casual observer say about the conversation? What can you learn on improving the culture by this feedback? How can youimprove the feedback?

Get used to asking why as a discovery question, not as a preface to anaccusation.

3. Interview any new employee within 7-14 days of starting work.People are smart and very quickly adapt to a new environment. This includescompanies where a fresh face quickly blends into the culture. Many of us wouldlike to change things but many cultural mindsets become invisible because,thats just the way we do it here. The newest employee is more likely to wonderwhy and the smart cultural warrior will pounce on this information like the goldnugget it is. Oh by the way act on the interview information.

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The important part of this interview is to only do it when you arecompletely open and 100% non-defensive. The interviewee will take cuesfrom your body language good or bad.

Take good notes (and let the person know what and why you are writingvigorously.) Also, you must be committed to acting on this feedback or elsethe interview is actually a bad thing. Any boss who asks the type ofquestions as below is sending an implied message of coming improvement.Better to not ask and not change than to ask and then not follow through.

Here are possible questions.o What has surprised you about joining this company?o What has disappointed you since you started?o What processes seems cumbersome? What methods are really

slick?o What is your favorite part of this job? Why?

o Assuming the right skills match, would you try to get your bestfriend to work here? Why or why not?

o What kind of training do you wish you would have more of?o What educational opportunities do you hope for in this

organization?o What things would make you a raving fan of this organization for a

long time?o If you were to describe this company as a person, what would that

person look like and act like? IMPORTANT: Follow up with the new employee in no more than two

weeks about improvements you made based on the feedback. The more the

better. Please, please follow-up. If this is not your strength, enlist the helpof a colleague or sharp executive assistant.

4. Hire for a value system first before experience. See if this soundsfamiliar. The typical hiring process looks for X years of experience in thisspecialty or that. Throw in a college degree for good measure and maybemembership in some professional group. Once the hiring manager is satisfied theperson has been there, done that long enough, the deal is closed.

All too often though, the same hiring manager willgrow disgruntled with the employee in the coming

weeks and months. Why the dissatisfaction? Theproblem is rarely a discrepancy in the experiencelevel. (They said they had eight years experience andthey only have six, for example.) The complaint isusually something about the lack of performance or

some obnoxious personal trait. This is a classic case of aiming for the wrongtarget and hitting it! The company ultimately pays the price in lower morale,

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productivity and profitability. Dont get me wrong, experience is important, itsjust over-emphasized in too many cases.


Identify the values most important in the ideal person for the position. If

you can narrow the list to the top three or four, thats best. Conduct more than one interview face to face. You cant afford to mess

up the hiring decision because its too painful and costly. Sorry HR,telephone interviews are terrible for making quality hiring decisions.Skype is bit better but still not as good as in person.

Conduct at least one interview at a local eatery or other public placerequiring interaction with others. (I cant take credit for this idea but dontremember where I read it.) How does the prospective employee interact?Is this someone you want talking to your most valued customers?

Get into discussions about decision-making with the candidate to start tounderstanding their thinking process. What values do you think are most

important to them? Would you let this person babysit your 4-year old?Would you be comfortable to introduce this interviewee to your mother? If you dont find the right candidate at first, start over. Dont settle for

second best or just OK. Resist the pressure to just fill the position.Take it from one with hiring regrets in a past life.

5. Learn to work outside the script. (OK, I fibbed a little here is a fifthway to help build a stand-out culture.) Anybody can learn and run a businessscript. Its not terribly tough to say, Store policy is because it transfers theaccountability to some nameless person deep in the company hierarchy. The clerkor low-level employee becomes the innocent face for a dysfunctional organization

and this is doubly frustrating for the customer.

The first frustration is the restrictive policy that does not allow the customer to becompletely satisfied or, heaven forbid, delighted! The second frustration is thereis usually no way to give feedback on the dumb policy to the company because theperson reciting policy has little or no influence. Too often, company policiesarise out of a few isolated problems and rather than deal directly with the issuesand the culprits, its easier to make a blanket rule and pronounce the problemsolved. To the hapless consumer, it can seem as though some businesses work tofind new ways of saying no like a no-of-the-week campaign.

I am not advocating anarchy or lawless minimum wage employees but surely it isbe common sense that team members be allowed and encouraged to think todelight customers (who are the life blood of any enterprise). After all, if theemployees are that bad, why did you hire them in the first place? Why notcommunicate policy in a broader sense of timeless values such as respect,kindness, courage, fairness, justice, etc. This may prove difficult for theorganization bent on hiring on experience alone see the last section but thistype of employee is worth his or her weight in gold.

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Resist the urge to have very many company policies. Yes, you need somerules to keep order but keep the number down and, by all means, reviewall the policies at least annually and cut the most annoying 20%.

Find a way to actively, genuinely ask for customer feedback so the lamest

rules become painfully obvious quickly! Give the frontline employees some decision-making authority using broad

values (respect, kindness, courage, fairness, justice, etc.). Sorry to be repetitive but ask customers, would you recommend your

mother shop or work here? If yes, why? If not, why not? Educate the frontline employees. Dont just throw them into the ring and

expect instant success. I have seen it and so have you. As one colleagueused to say, Pay me now or pay me later.

Photo CreditsReceptionist mikecogh on FlickrOffice Chair Andrew Michael Nathan on FlickrInformal Office Meeting public.resource.org on Flickr

Copyright 2011 Michael Friesen. All rights reserved.

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4 steps to better culture

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